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STORIES FROM 



ENGLISH HISTORY 



From B.C. 55 to A.D. 1901 



EDITED AND ADAPTED BY 

HENRY P. WARREN, L.H.D. 

PRINCIPAL OF THE ALBANY ACADEMY 



- ' *• V L ■- K. . „ l> J ,J JO 



-0-O>©^00- 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 

1901 



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THE LIBRARY OF 

0OMGRESS, 
Two Cories Received 

NOV, 2 1901 

COPVCJIOHT ENTRY 

ICLASS XXa No. 

copy a. 



Copyright, 1901, 
By D. C. Heath & Co. 



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BMimpton press 



H. M. PLIMPTON & CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS, 
NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 

In writing this book an endeavor has been made 
to interest boys and girls in English history by 
stories of some of its great events and of some of 
the great men who adorn its pages. This aim being 
kept steadily in view throughout, it seemed right 
to select certain important incidents and characters, 
and to deal with them in some detail and in as 
interesting a way as possible, rather than to load 
the pages with a multitude of names and dates, in 
the vain effort to crowd into a few pages a continu- 
ous history which should be at once full and inter- 
esting. Yet it is believed that no important events 
or personages have been entirely neglected, while 
particular attention has been directed toward those 
of chief significance to American boys and girls. 

Upon the pictorial illustrations much care has 
been expended. Some are derived from great his- 
torical paintings and old prints ; others are from 
drawings by some of the best artists of the day; 
all, it is hoped, will succeed in imparting additional 
interest to the historical facts, scenes, and char- 
acters which they portray. 



in 



/ 



IV PREFACE. 

The book is based upon the Warwick history 
readers, long and favorably known to the English 
public. Certain abridgments and additions have 
been made in order to adapt the scope and contents 
to the present needs of American boys and girls. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Story of Ancient Britain — 

i. The Landing of Caesar ......... i 

2. Britain and the Britons . . . . . . , . . 3 

3. Caesar's Second Coming ........ 6 

4. Caradoc . 7 

5. Boadicea ........... 10 

6. Britain under the Romans . . 12 

The Beginning of Christian England — 

1. Britain becomes England . . . . . . . .15 

2. The English . . . . . . . . . . 17 

3. The Coming of Augustine . . . . . . . .18 

4. Caedmon, the Old English Singer ....... 22 

The Story of Alfred the Great — 

1. Alfred the Boy . . . ... 26 

2. Alfred the Warrior ......... 29 

3. Alfred in Misfortune . . . . . „ . . .31 

4. Alfred in Retirement ......... 33 

5. Alfred conquers the Danes ........ 34 

6. Alfred the King 37 

7. Alfred's Last Years 39 

The Danes in England — 

1. The Danish Conquest ......... 42 

2. The Danish Kings .......... 44 

The Norman Conquest — 

1. Harold's Oath . 47 

2. The Battle of Hastings 50 

3. Completion of the Conquest 52 

4. Hereward . . . . . . . . • " • 55 

5. Results of the Conquest — I 57 

6. Results of the Conquest — 2 . . . . . . . .60 

The Story of Henry the Second — 

1. Henry's Title and Character 62 

2. Henry's Work for England — 1 . . . • . .64 

3. Henry's Work for England — 2 67 

4. Thomas Becket 69 

v 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

5. Becket Quarrels with Henry ........ 70 

6. The Council of Northampton ....... 73 

7. The End of Becket 75 

8. Henry's Last Years ......... 78 

The Crusades and Richard the First — 

1. What the Crusades were ........ 81 

2. The Third Crusade ......... 84 

3. Richard's Adventures and Death 86 

King John and the Great Charter — 

1. The Signing ot the Charter ........ 89. 

2. Stephen Langton .......... 91 

3. Last Days of King John 94 

Earl Simon of Montfort — 

1. Governor of Gascony ......... 96 

2. The Provisions of Oxford ........ 98 

3. Simon against the King ........ 101 

4. The End of Simon ......... 103 

The Story of Edward the First — 

1. Edward's Early Years . . . . . . . . . 107 

2. Edward conquers Wales . . . . . . . .110 

3. Edward invades Scotland . . . . . . . .112 

4. Sir William Wallace . . . . . . . . .114 

5. Edward loses Scotland . . . . . . . . .117 

6. Edward's Work for England ' . . .119 

The Hundred Years' War — 

1. The Beginning of the War 121 

2. The Battle of Crecy 123 

3. The Citizens of Calais . . . . . . . . .126 

4. Poictiers and Agincourt . . . . . . . .130 

5. Joan of Arc — 1 .......... 133 

6. Joan of Arc — 2 134 

The Black Death and the State of England — , 

1. The Black Death 138 

2. Wat Tyler's Rebellion 140 

3. The State of England 143 

The Wars of the Roses — 

1. The Cause of the War 147 

2. The Earl of Warwick ......... 149 

3. The End of the War 153 

The Story of William Caxton — 

1. Caxton at Bruges . . . . . . . . . .156 

2. Caxton begins to Print 159 

3. Caxton in England . .162 



CONTENTS. Vll 

PAGE 

The Discovery of America — 

i. Christopher Columbus 166 

2. Results of the Discovery 168 

The King and the Cardinal — 

1. King Hal and the French War 171 

2. Flodden Field 174 

3. Thomas Wolsey 177 

4. The Field of the Cloth of Gold 179 

5. The Fall of Wolsey 182 

6. Last Days of Wolsey 185 

The Story of the Reformation — 

1. The King as Head of the Church 188 

2. The Ruin of the Monasteries . ....... 191 

3. The New Religious Faith 194 

4. Religious Persecutions ......... 196 

The Story of Sir Thomas More-- 

1. More's Life ' . . • .199 

2. More's Death .203 

The Story of Lady Jane Grey — 

1. The Question of the Succession 206 

2. The Fate of Lady Jane 208 

The Story of Queen Elizabeth — 

1. Elizabeth and Mary 214 

2. Elizabeth's Character . . 215 

3. England under Elizabeth 217 

The Story of Mary Queen of Scots — 

1. Mary and Darnley 222 

2. Mary's Misfortunes 225 

The Story of Sir Francis Drake — 

1. His Early Life . . 229 

2. One of Drake's Adventures 230 

The Story of the Spanish Armada — 

1. The Coming of the Armada * . . 234 

2. The Defeat of the Armada 237 

The Story of Sir Walter Raleigh — 

1. Raleigh a Favorite of the Queen 242 

2. Raleigh in Disgrace 245 

The Story of William Shakespeare — 

1. Shakespeare's Life . . 248 

2. Shakespeare's Works , . , . 252 



Vlll ' CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers — 

I. Religious Freedom . . . . . . . . . 255 

The Story of the Great Rebellion — 

1. The Petition of Right 258 

2. The Government of Ireland 260 

3. More Trouble for King Charles 262 

4. Affair of the Five Members ........ 264 

5. Oliver Cromwell appears ........ 267 

6. Success of the " New Model " . . . . . . .271 

7. Fall of the King .......... 274 

8. Last Days of the King ......... 277 

The Story of Oliver Cromwell — 

1. Cromwell's Last Victories . 280 

2. Cromwell becomes Protector ........ 283 

3. England's Greatness under Cromwell ...... 286 

4. Cromwell's Difficulties and Death 289 

The Story of General Monk — 

1. The Restoration 292 

The Story of John Milton — 

1. Milton's Life and Works . 297 

The Story of Two Great Calamities — 

1. The Plague of London ......... 302 

2. The Fire of London ......... 303 

The Story of the Revolution — 

1. James the Second 308 

2. The Dispensing Power ......... 309 

3. Trial of the Seven Bishops 311 

4. William of Orange . . . . . . . . -313 

5. The War in Ireland . . . . . . . . • 3 J 7 

6. The War with France ......... 321 

7. The Close of William the Third's Reign 323 

The Story of Marlborough — 

1. The Balance of Power 326 

2. The Battle of Blenheim 329 

3. Marlborough's Downfall 333 

The Revolt of 1715 335 

Sir Robert Walpole — 

1. The South Sea Bubble 337 

2. The Origin of the " Prime Minister " ...... 340 

" Bonnie Prince Charlie " — 

J. The Outbreak in the North 343 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

The British in India — 

1. Clive goes to India — The Siege of Arcot ..... 347 

2. The Black Hole — Plassey . . 350 

3. The Story of Warren Hastings ....... 352 

The Story of General Wolfe and the Taking of Quebec . 358 

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 362 

The American War of Independence 367 

William Pitt, the Younger — 

1. Reduction of Taxation — The French Revolution .... 369 

2. War with France — The Irish Act of Union 373 

The Story of Lord Nelson ........ 377 

The Story of Wellington — 

1. Sir Arthur Wellesley in India 383 

2. Wellesley commands in the Peninsula ...... 385 

3. The End of the Great War 389 

England's Second War with America 391 

The Story of Spinning and Weaving — 

1. Hargreaves and the Spinning-jenny ...... 393 

2. The Story of Arkwright and Crompton ...... 395 

3. Cartwright and the Power-loom ....... 397 

The Story of the Steam-engine and the Locomotive — 

1. James Watt and the Steam-engine ...... 399 

2. George Stephenson and the Locomotive ..... 401 

The Great Reform Bill 406 

John Howard, the Reformer of the Jails 412 

William Wilberforce, the Freer of the Slaves . . . .415 

The Story of David Livingstone . . . . . . .417 

The Crimean War . . , . 423 

The Indian Mutiny — 

1. The Outbreak — Relief of Lucknow ...... 427 

2. Sir Colin Campbell quells the Mutiny ...... 428 

Some Injustices removed 432 

The British Colonies — 

1. The Dominion of Canada . . . . . . . . 438 

2. Australia 440 

3. The Federation of the Australian Colonies , , * . . 442 



X CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



4. Cape Colony and Natal 444 

5. The Transvaal and the Orange Free State 446 

6. Egypt 45 1 

The Story of Queen Victoria 455 

List of Important Dates in English History .... 464 

Index 47 1 



LIST OF MAPS. 

Great Britain (in colors) facing page 1 

The Straits of Dover 4 

England in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries . . .111 
Reference Maps' for the Wars of the Roses . . . .115 

The French Frontier under Louis XIV. . . . . .331 

Map of India 349 

the book also contains more than 
one hundred and twenty illustrations. 



10 



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STORIES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY 

FROM B.C. 55 TO 1901 A.D. 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
I. THE LANDING OF C^SAR. 

One day in August, fifty-five years before Christ, 
some unknown ships were seen crossing the sea 
toward the southeast corner of the island of Britain. 
The men on the beach watched them closely. As 
they drew nearer, the rays of the sun flashed on the 
helmets and swords of armed men. The ships 
were full of soldiers. 

" See, yonder comes the enemy ! " the watchers 
may have cried. "It is the great chief of whom we 
have heard. He is coming with his mighty men to 
conquer our country, and to make our sons and 
daughters slaves. We must fight for our lives and 
homes ! " 

The news of the coming of the enemy soon 
spread along the coast. Crowds of warriors flocked 
together to defend their island home. When the 
ships had nearly reached the land, the soldiers on 
board them saw, stretching along the shore, a great 
throng of wild, half-naked men. 



2 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 

It was not easy for the strangers to land. . Their 
ships were large, and could not come very close to 




The Landing of the Romans. 



the beach. The soldiers were not used to the sea, 
and were not eager to fight the waves before they 
could reach land and fight the men. 



BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS. 3 

But at length a brave standard-bearer in one of 
the ships raised his standard aloft. Pointing to 
the figure of an eagle which crowned it, he cried : 
" Soldiers, follow me, unless you wish to give up 
your eagle to the enemy ! I at any rate will do my 
duty to my general and my country." 

So saying, he leaped boldly into the sea, with the 
standard in his hand. Ashamed of their fear, all 
the soldiers sprang after him, and dashed through 
the water toward the land. 

The brave men on shore rushed out to meet 
them, hurling stones and darts. Many a hard blow 
was struck, many a man was wounded and slain. 
But the strangers were the better soldiers, and after 
a hard struggle they stood on dry land, and drove 
the enemy in flight before them. 



II. BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS. 

The strangers who had thus gained a footing 
upon the island were Romans. They were the 
finest soldiers in the world, and conquered wher- 
ever they went. Their general was Julius Caesar, 
one of the greatest soldiers that ever lived. 

Caesar had for many years been fighting in Gaul, 
the country which we now call France. The men 
of Gaul fought bravely, and Caesar found out that 
they were sometimes helped by friendly warriors 
from Britain. 

So, when he had conquered Gaul, Caesar made 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 



up his mind to cross the sea and conquer the men 
of the island also. He wanted to prevent them 
helping the Gauls any more. He also wanted to 
see what the island was like. He had heard strange 
tales of its beauty and wealth, and he wished to see 
for himself if they were true. 

What he saw he has told us himself, in a book 

which he wrote 
about his wars. The 
island, he tells us, 
was called Britain, 
and the people Brit- 
ons. They were 
much like the peo- 
ple of Gaul, — tall, 
strong, with blue 
eyes and long light 
hair. Those who 
lived near the sea 
grew grain, and car- 
ried on trade with 
Gaul. Those who 
lived inland were more savage, fed on milk and 
flesh, and had only the skins of beasts for their 
dress. 

They were brave in battle, and in war time 

painted their bodies blue in order to frighten their 

enemies. They used war-chariots, which they 

drove with furious speed into the enemy's ranks. 

They had no towns with streets of well-built 




BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS. 5 

houses, but lived in mud huts scattered here and 
there. The dress even of the richest of them was 
poor and rough, though their chiefs sometimes 
wore ornaments of gold. 




Britons making a Boat of Basket-work. 



Such were the people who lived in Britain two 
thousand years ago, and who faced the Romans so 
bravely at the coast. 



6 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 



III. CESAR'S SECOND COMING. 

When the Britons found that they were helpless 
against the Romans, they begged Caesar to make 
peace. This he was willing to do. 

But a great storm arose, and the Roman ships, 
which had been left on the beach, were lifted by the 
waves and dashed upon the rocks. Many of them 
were hopelessly ruined, and some other ships which 
were bringing Caesar's horse-soldiers from Gaul, 
were forced by the storm to put back. 

The Britons saw what damage the storm had 
done, and they were glad of it. Caesar's army was 
not very large, and he had lost some of his ships. 
If only his soldiers could be kept on the island, and 
be prevented from getting food during the winter 
months, the Britons thought that they might de- 
stroy their enemy after all. 

But Caesar was too great a general to let his army 
be destroyed in this way. He ordered the ships 
that were most damaged to be broken up, and 
with their wood the holes in other ships were 
mended. 

Grain for food was got from the harvest-fields of 
the Britons, and the Romans made, around their 
camp, a rampart and a ditch, behind which they 
were safe from attack. 

But when the storms had ceased, Caesar thought 
it best to return to Gaul, for he could not hope to 



CARADOC. 7 

crush the Britons with his little army. After one 
more terrible battle, in which the Romans were 
victors, Caesar burned down many of the dwellings 
of the Britons, and then left the island. 

The next year he returned with a larger army, 
which landed without having to fight. For the 
Britons, remembering their first defeat, had fled 
into one of the dark forests which covered the 
country. There they built a stronghold, from 
which they made, from time to time, sudden attacks 
on the enemy. 

Caesar then marched inland, and crossed the 
Thames with his troops, fighting hard all the way. 
The Romans soon captured the stronghold of the 
British chief Caswallon, who then gave up the 
struggle, and promised to pay tribute to the victors. 

Caesar had now shown the Britons how helpless 
they were against the power of Rome ; this was all 
that he had meant to do. There was no longer any 
fear that they would help the Gauls, and the great 
Roman general left Britain forever. 



IV. CARADOC. 

For nearly a hundred years after Caesar went 
away from Britain, the Romans left the island alone. 
Then the Roman Emperor Claudius, wishing to 
make Britain a real part of his empire, sent a 
general to conquer it. 

The Britons, as before, stoutly defended them- 



8 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 

selves, but they were no match for the well-trained 
Roman soldiers. Some of their tribes even went 
over to the side of the enemy, and helped to defeat 
their own brethren. 

In a fierce battle, one of the British chiefs was 
killed. Caradoc, the bravest of them all, was forced 
to flee into the country that is now called Wales, 
and the Roman general seized upon his lands. 

Caradoc was not only brave : he was also skilled 
in the art of war. He withdrew with a vast horde 
of Britons into the hills of Wales, where he knew 
every step of the ground. 

When the Roman general led his army after him, 
Caradoc chose a position upon a steep hill. He 
threw up a wall of huge stones for a defence, and 
was also protected by a deep river which ran between 
him and the Romans. 

At the approach of the enemy, Caradoc and other 
chiefs rushed from rank to rank, cheering their men 
with brave words. On came the Romans, to be 
met with thick showers of darts and stones. 

Still they pressed on. They were armed with 
helmet, breastplate, and shield, which saved them 
many a wound, and their spears and swords were of 
the finest make. 

The Britons had no armor, and their weapons 
were not equal to those of the Romans. They were 
not so well trained, and though they fought with 
desperate courage, they suffered a terrible defeat. 

Caradoc escaped, and fled to his step-mother in 



CARADOC. 



the north ; while his wife and daughter were taken 
prisoners. But he was not long free, for his step- 
mother, wishing to win favor with the Romans, 
gave the brave chief up to them. 

When the Roman general returned to his own 
country, he took Caradoc and his family with him 
among his prisoners. All Rome flocked to see the 
general ride in triumph 
through the streets. 

First in the long 
line of prisoners came 
slaves whom Caradoc 
had conquered in war. 
Then came men bear- 
ing chains of gold and 
rich treasures which he 
had taken from other 
British tribes. His 
wife and daughter, 
and his brothers fol- 
lowed next ; and last of 
all came Caradoc him- 
self with a bold fearless look. 

" I had men and horses, arms and wealth," he 
said, when he stood before the Roman emperor; 
" I might have been your friend instead of your 
captive. My fall and your triumph will ever be 
famous ; so now, if you save my life, the fame of 
your mercy will never die." 

Struck by the courage of the chief, the emperor 




Roman Soldiers. 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 

pardoned him and all his family. Their chains 
were struck off, and it is said that Caradoc remained 
in Rome, and received many favors at the em- 
peror's hands. 

V. BOADICEA. 

For more than ten years after the capture of 
Caradoc, the Romans could do no more than hold 
their own in Britain. Then dreadful things hap- 
pened which ended sadly for the Britons. 

One of the British kings had arranged that, at 
his death, his kingdom should be divided equally 
between his two daughters and the Roman em- 
peror. In this way he thought to keep his family 
and his kingdom safe. 

But when he died, Roman soldiers came and 
plundered his country. They whipped his wife 
Boadicea with cruel rods, and ill-treated his two 
daughters. They took for themselves all that had 
belonged to him and to his chief men, and carried 
away his kinsfolk as slaves. 

The people were shocked and maddened by this 
conduct, and feared for their own lives and goods. 
Getting other tribes to join them, they raised a great 
army to fight against the Romans. 

One day they fell upon the Romans when they 
were little expected, and took a terrible revenge, 
slaying old and young without mercy, and setting 
fire to houses and temples. The Romans fled to 



BOADICEA. I I 

London, which was even then a thriving business 
town. 

The Britons followed, and the Roman general 
was forced to leave the town, for the greater part 
of his army was elsewhere, and the force he had 
was too small to fight the enemy. Then the 
Britons burned London, and slew thousands of the 
people of the city. 

But the Roman general soon collected all his 
forces, and made ready for a great battle. He 
placed his army where there was an open plain in 
front and a forest at their backs. Horse and foot 
stood firm in close array. 

Opposite them stood the army of the Britons, a 
great throng of wild, fierce men, eager for vengeance 
on their foe. Then Boadicea appeared with her 
daughters in a war-chariot, and rode up and down 
the ranks from tribe to tribe. 

" Britons," she cried, " in this battle I myself will 
lead you on ! The Romans have robbed you of 
your freedom; look, my body smarts with these 
wounds they have inflicted ; my daughters weep for 
the injuries they have suffered. 

" One of the Roman legions has perished, and the 
rest are afraid. They will run away if you only 
shout, and wall not wait for your blows. Let us 
fight, then, for in this battle we must conquer or 
die. This is the mind of a woman; men, if they 
like, may live and be slaves ! " 

Then the battle began, and with javelin and lance 



12 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 

the Roman met the foe. The Britons fought with 
fury, but they had no chance against their well- 
trained enemy. The Romans slew even women 
and beasts of burden, as well as many thousands of 
the warriors. 

Boadicea fled, and fearing lest, if she were taken, 
she should suffer again, she put an end to her life 
by poison. 

VI. BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 

The Romans were not soldiers only ; they could 
do a great deal more than fight. They were a 
great people in many ways, and when they had 
conquered Britain by force of arms, they turned 
their attention to the arts of peace. For nearly 
four hundred years the Romans held Britain as a 
part of the Roman empire, and during that time 
the country was greatly changed for the better. 

Many of the dense forests which grew in various 
parts of it were cut down. Marshes were drained, 
and well-built towns were founded where at one 
time there was nothing but wild underwood or 
swamp. Fine temples, baths, and public buildings 
adorned the streets of the towns, in which trade 
flourished and wealth grew. 

Great roads were made, running from London 
into all parts of the country, and passing through 
forests and over rivers. Mines of tin, lead, and 
copper were worked, and the metal got from them 



14 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 

was sent across the sea to Gaul and Italy. The 
Romans encouraged the fisheries of the island, and 
taught the Britons better ways of tilling their fields 
and growing crops. 

The rich Romans built themselves splendid villas 
in the country, paving the floors with colored tiles, 
and adorning the rooms with graceful pillars and fine 
carvings. Remains of Roman houses and pottery 
are to this day sometimes dug up in some parts of 
England. 

The Romans taught the Britons how to make 
better clothes than those they had been accustomed 
to wear. Some of the Britons learned to speak 
Latin, the language of the Romans, and British 
soldiers served in the army of the empire. 

It was during this time that the story of Christ 
first became known in Britain. What the religion 
of the Britons was before this we do not know ; but 
their priests were called Druids, and offered human 
sacrifices in dim groves of oak. Though the religion 
of Christ began to be known, there were many sav- 
age Britons still in the land who hated the Christian 
religion, and who would not learn anything at all 
from the Romans. 



THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 
I. BRITAIN BECOMES ENGLAND. 

There came a time when the Romans left Britain. 
Wild tribes were attacking their splendid city Rome, 
and all the Roman soldiers were needed for its 
defence. 

It was a bad day for the Britons when the last 
Roman soldier went away. For many years the 
Romans had defended the country from the fierce 
warriors who attacked it, some of whom came from 
the part of the island now called Scotland, some 
from over the sea. 

When the Britons were left to themselves, they 
found that they were too weak to keep off their 
bold enemies. They sent to Rome most pitiful 
letters asking for help. 

In one of them they said: "The savages drive 
us into the sea, the sea drives us back on to the 
savages. Our only choice is whether we shall die 
by the sword, or drown ; for we have none to save 
us." 

But Rome could not spare soldiers for the defence 
of Britain. At length, less than a hundred years 
after the Romans had gone, wild heathen Angles 
and Saxons from Denmark and North Germany 

15 



i6 



THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 



overcame the Britons, and took for themselves some 
land in the southeast part of the island. 

Step by step they drove the Britons inland ; every 




The First Preaching of Christianity in Britain. 



year new bands poured across the sea to assist them, 
and by and by they became masters of the country. 
They made their home on the land which they had 



THE ENGLISH. I 7 

won, and called it England. Those of the Britons 
who escaped death or slavery had to seek refuge in 
the wild country in the west, and their descendants 
live in Wales and Cornwall to this day. 



II. THE ENGLISH. 

These heathen people from over the sea, and not 
the Britons, were the forefathers of the English 
people of to-day. Let us try to see what they were 
like, and how they lived. 

Like the Britons, they were tall and strong, with 
bright blue eyes, and light hair which was allowed 
to grow long both by men and women, but they 
were farmers and fishermen, and lived together in 
villages or little townships. They made it a boast 
that they were free ; indeed, the men of different vil- 
lages kept so much apart that they were like enemies. 

The greater part of the men were called churls, 
and were freemen, each holding his own portion of 
land. The chief men, who had earned fame them- 
selves, or whose fathers had been noble, were called 
earls. From these earls were chosen leaders in 
war and rulers in peace, and these leaders were 
known as aldermen. But no man enjoyed more 
rights than any of his fellows. 

Disputes between the villagers were settled at 
the " tun-moot," that is, a town meeting at which 
all the men would attend to give their votes. Mat- 
ters of more importance were decided at the " shire- 



1 8 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 

moot" or county meeting. Here again every free- 
man had the right to attend. 

Laws were made, and the great questions of 
peace and war were talked about, by the " Witan " 
or wise men of the people: that is, the earls and 
other great men ; but the people came to their meet- 
ings, and showed by their shouts what they thought 
of their wise men's speeches. These meetings were 
not held in a hall, but beneath some spreading tree, 
or upon some grassy hill-top. 

The people had at first not one king, but many. 
There were at one time at least seven great king- 
doms in England, though at last one of the kings, 
Egbert of Wessex, was looked upon as chief or 
master-king by the rest. 

The love of freedom which these Old English 
felt is still felt by their descendants, and in Eng- 
land and America it has helped to make them the 
great nations that they are. 



III. THE COMING OF AUGUSTINE. 

There is a pretty story which connects Britain, 
now called England, again with Rome, which was 
at that time the chief Christian city of Europe. 

One day a young Roman priest named Gregory 
was passing through the market-place of Rome. 
Among the slaves who were huddled together 
there, waiting to be bought, were some pretty boys 



THE COMING OF AUGUSTINE. 



19 



whose fair hair and ruddy faces were strange to 
the dark Roman. 

" Who are they ? " he asked of one who was 
standing by. 




Gregory and the little English Slaves. 

" They are Angles," was the answer ; " Angles 
from England over the sea." 

" Not Angles, but angels," he said, touching 
their fair locks kindly. " And do they come from 
England ? " 



20 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 

" Yes ; from heathen Deira, the kingdom of King 
Ella, there." 

" Then shall they be saved from the wrath of 
God," 1 said Gregory, " and Alleluia shall be sung 
in the land of Ella." 

Many years after, when the young priest had 
become Pope Gregory the Great, he remembered 
the boys in the market-place, and what he had said 
about them, and how he had longed to go and 
teach them. He wished to change the English 
from heathens to Christians, but he could not now 
go to England himself, as he had meant to do. 

At the head of one of the convents in Rome was 
a monk named Augustine, and he was chosen by 
Gregory to go to England. With him he took 
forty monks, and they landed in the Isle of Thanet, 
in Kent. 

Now the English were pagans, and worshipped 
many gods, chief of whom was Woden, 2 the god of 
war, the father of slaughter, the giver of victory. 
They believed that heroes, when they died, went to 
a heaven where the days were spent in fighting and 
the nights in feasting. 

They offered up animals as sacrifices to their 
gods. Sometimes they killed their slaves and even 
their children upon their altars. Their religion 
was one of cruelty, not of love. 

But Ethelbert, the king of Kent, had married a 

1 De ira means in Latin "from the wrath." 

2 His name forms part of Wednesday, the day of Woden. 



THE COMING OF AUGUSTINE. 



21 



Christian lady, Bertha, daughter of the k&ig of 
Paris. He had also met and talked with wise men 
of other lands, who were not so rough as the Eng- 




Queen Bertha reading to King Ethelbert. 

lish in their ways of life. He had learnt from them 
and from his wife many things he would not other- 
wise have known, and he was a good and wise 
king. 



2 2 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 

When Augustine reached England and sent word 
to the king that he had come to speak of Christ, 
Ethelbert received him kindly. With his wife he 
sat among his people in the open air to receive the 
teachers. . 

The rough English must have wondered as the 
monks came slowly along, chanting solemn hymns, 
and bearing aloft a great silver cross, and a banner 
painted with the figure of Jesus. 

Ethelbert listened with attention to what Augus- 
tine had to say. " Fair are your words," he said, 
when the monks had finished, " but also new and 
strange. I may not forsake the gods of my father, 
but as for my people, they may believe whatsoever 
they will, and no man shall hinder them." 

He allowed Augustine to make his home in Can- 
terbury, where he held services in Bertha's church. 
There the monks lived a simple life, preaching to 
all who would hear, caring nothing for riches, and 
depending for their daily food upon the kindness 
of those they taught. 

In course of time, their good example led many 
to believe what they taught, and by and by King 
Ethelbert was baptized, and thousands of his people 
with him. 



IV. C^DMON, THE OLD ENGLISH SINGER. 

It was long before all England became Christian. 
The country was ruled, not by one king, but by 
many, and all were not so good and wise as Ethel- 



OEDMON, THE OLD ENGLISH SINGER. 



23 



bert. But at length the old gods were given up 
throughout the country. 

One of the pagan kings who became Christians 
was Edwin, who ruled over the north part of the 




Cedmon repeating his Poem to the Abbess Hilda. 

country. He was kind to Christian teachers, and, 
after his death, a grand-niece of his, named Hilda, 
founded a home for monks and nuns at Whitby. It 
stood on a high cliff, the broad sea below it on one 
side, the woody valley of the river Esk on the other. 
Here men and women lived pure and earnest 



24 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 

lives. They read and studied, they shared all their 
goods in common ; they called Hilda " mother," and 
looked up to her as one far higher and holier than 
themselves. She taught and cared for the poor, 
ignorant people round about, and they learnt the 
stories of the Bible in song and poem. 

How the first of these poems was made is told 
us in an old story. Among the men who came to 
the monastery to work and to be taught was one 
of middle age named Caedmon. At night the ser- 
vants and others would meet in the hall, and pass the 
time pleasantly in singing songs of brave deeds of 
old, to the music of the harp. 

But Caedmon knew no songs. When, as he sat 
with the rest, his turn came to sing, and he saw the 
harp coming towards him, he would rise from the 
table in shame, and go home sad and lonely. Yet 
he felt in his heart that he would like to sing, not of 
battles and heroes, but of the wonderful things that 
he had learnt from the Lady Hilda. 

One night he had gone out from the feast to the 
stables. Some of the guests had come from far, and 
their beasts must be guarded against robbers. It 
was Caedmon's turn to watch them, and as he sat 
among them, sad because he had no gift of song, he 
fell asleep. 

In his sleep he had a wondrous dream. One 
stood by him and called him by name. " Caedmon," 
he said, " sing me something." 

" I cannot sing," the poor man replied ; " indeed, 



C^EDMON, THE OLD ENGLISH SINGER. 25 

I have come out hither from the feast because 1 
could not sing." 

" But you shall sing to me," said the stranger. 

" What," asked Caedmon, " ought I to sing ? " 

" Sing of the beginning of all things," was the 
answer ; " sing of the Creation of the World." 

Then Caedmon began to sing words which came 
to his lips he knew not how. In the morning, re- 
membering part of what he had sung in his dream, 
he went to one of the servants of the house, and 
told him about it. 

He was taken to Hilda, who said, when she had 
heard his poem, that his new power was the gift of 
God. She told him a Bible story, and when he 
came next day with the story turned into verse, she 
asked him to become a monk, and to give up the 
rest of his life to making poems. 

So he went to live in the monastery, where he was 
taught the sacred stories, and turned them into song. 
There he lived to a great age, and died at last peace- 
fully in his sleep. He was a good and humble man, 
of whom all were fond. 



THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
I. ALFRED THE BOY. 

The greatest of the kings who ruled over Eng- 
land in early times was Alfred, and about him many 
stories are told. 

Alfred was the youngest and favorite son of 
King Ethelwolf, who was in many ways a good 
king. He had been brought up in a monastery, 
and all his life thought much of learning and reli- 
gion. His mother died when he was four years 
old. 

When Alfred was seven Ethelwolf went on a visit 
to Rome, taking the boy with him. Along with 
the king went many of his chief men, and the 
people of the countries through which they passed 
wondered at the splendor and wealth of the English 
king. 

When they came to Rome, Ethelwolf gave rich 
presents to the Pope. One was a golden crown, 
another was a sword, the hilt of which was made of 
gold. Other presents were vessels of gold and 
silver, and dresses beautifully made and richly 
adorned. The king also gave away much money in 
Rome, and the people of Rome were loud in his 
praises. 

26 



ALFRED THE BOY. 27 

Little Alfred must have enjoyed his visit. As 
he saw the splendid buildings in Rome, the temples, 
the theatres, the circus, the statues ; as he walked 
where Caesar had walked, and stood where Caradoc 
had bowed before the Emperor Claudius, his mind 
must have been filled with new thoughts and 
wishes. 

Perhaps he said to himself : " Oh ! if I were a 
king, I would do my best to make my country as 
great and as beautiful as this beautiful Rome." 

They stayed in Rome a year, and then they set 
out for home. On the way back through France, 
Ethel wolf married Judith, the young daughter of 
the French king, whose beauty he had admired 
when he saw her on his former journey. She was 
only seven years older than Alfred. 

Judith was very kind to her young stepson. 
When they were back in England, she read to him 
the stories and poems of which he grew so fond. 
The boy was bright and thoughtful, and he used to 
look with delight and longing at the books from 
which Judith read. 

They were not printed, but were written by hand. 
Monks spent long days in forming shapely letters, 
and in making the books beautiful with pictures 
and ornaments, wonderful in form and splendid in 
color. 

One day, when Judith had been reading to Al- 
fred and his elder brothers, she promised to give 
the book to the boy who first learned to read. The 



28 



THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 



bigger boys thought little of this, but Alfred set to 
work, and very soon won the book for his own. 

In those days few people could read, and hardly 
any one could write. Only the monks and their 




Alfred receives his Book. 



pupils learnt to read: The greatest men in the 
land could not write their names, but made a cross 
upon papers which they wished to sign. So Al- 
fred's brothers were not to be blamed because they 
loved games better than reading. 

Alfred loved games too. He grew up a strong, 



ALFRED THE WARRIOR. 29 

handsome youth, fond of sports and hunting, as 
well as of reading and study. He became also a 
brave and skilful soldier, and a favorite with all 
people, high and low. 



II. ALFRED THE WARRIOR. 

After Ethelwolfs death, three of his sons became 
king in turn. The third of these was Ethelred, 
and it was in his reign that Alfred showed what he 
could do in war. 

For many years England had been troubled, as 
Britain had been, by the attacks of fierce warriors 
from over the sea. These were the Danes or North- 
men who were very much like what the English 
had once been. They were bold and daring in 
fight on sea and land, and believed in the same gods 
that the heathen English had once worshipped. 

At first they would cross the water in the sum- 
mer, rob the English of whatever they could, and 
return to their own countries for the winter. But 
becoming bolder, they at last began to remain in 
the island to enjoy what, they had won by their 
fighting. They settled in Kent, and in the eastern 
counties, and from their settlements they used to 
attack and plunder the English. 

The English kings tried to drive them out, and 
won many battles against them. But as fast as one 
band was defeated, another would land and come to 
its help. It was just as impossible to keep them 



30 TH£ STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 

out, as it had been for the Britons to keep the 
English out years before. 

In Ethelred's time the Danes had won a great 
part of the country, and had formed a strong camp 
where the town of Reading now is. It was near 
this camp that a great battle was fought, in which 
Alfred showed his bravery and skill. 

The English army came in sight of the Danes at 
the close of a spring day. All things were got 
ready for the battle, and then the two armies went 
to their tents for the night. 

Early in the morning Alfred, who had charge of 
one part of the English army, went out to set his 
men in order. But Ethelred refused to leave his 
tent until the priests had performed the service of 
the church. 

The Danes made the first attack, and Alfred was 
hard pressed on a little hill where he had placed his 
men. Long and fierce was the fight around a thorn 
tree that stood alone at the top of the hill. At last 
Ethelred came to help his brother. His men fought 
well and bravely, and the Danes were overpowered, 
and put to flight. 

Not long after this victory, another battle was 
fought at Merton, in Surrey. This time the Danes 
were the victors, and Ethelred was wounded. After 
lying ill for some months he died, and Alfred, who 
was now twenty-two years old, became king. 

He was king, not of all England, but of Wessex, 
the country of the West Saxons, which took in the 



ALFRED IN MISFORTUNE. 3 1 

southern part of the country from Bristol Channel 
to the border of Sussex. But the king of Wessex 
was looked up to as their head by the other kings. 

Alfred was crowned king at Winchester, then 
and long after the capital, and at once had to fight 
hard for his kingdom against the Danes. 



III. ALFRED IN MISFORTUNE. 

A great battle was fought between the English 
and the Danes at Wilton. Neither side could claim 
the victory, but the slaughter was so great that even 
the Danes were glad to make peace. Very soon the 
peace was broken. 

The Danes came suddenly upon the castle of 
Wareham and the city of Exeter, and captured 
them. Other Danes crossed the sea to help their 
friends. 

Alfred built a fleet of ships to fight them on the 
sea, and his ships were sometimes able to drive the 
enemy back. In spite of this, the Danes were so 
strong, and overran Wessex in such swarms, that the 
English lost all hope of ever getting rid of them. 

Many Englishmen fled to France, and Alfred 
himself at last had to go into hiding at Athelney, a 
spot among the swamps of Somerset. Stories say 
that he lived for some time in the hut of a cow- 
herd, where he spent his time in making plans for 
freeing his country from the hated Danes. 

One day he was sitting by the fire, thinking 



32 



THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 



deeply, and mending his bow. The cowherd's 
wife had put some loaves to bake, and then attended 
to other things. By and by there arose a smell of 
burning, and the woman came quickly to the fire, 
and found that the loaves were burning black. 

She took them up and turned angrily to the 
man who sat there, not knowing that he was the 




King Alfred allows the Cakes to Burn. 



king. " You man ! " she cried, " you will not turn 
the bread you see burning, but you will be very glad 
to eat it when it is done." 

The king bore her scolding with patience, and after- 
wards took care to tend her bread as she wished. 

By and by some of Alfred's noblemen found out 
where their king was, and came to him. With their 
aid he turned the swampy place into a strong camp, 
and with them he talked over his plans. 



ALFRED IN RETIREMENT. 33 

IV. ALFRED IN RETIREMENT. 

One winter day, when food had run short, and 
Alfred's companions had gone out with their bows 
and arrows to hunt for more, a poor beggar came 
to the door. He asked the cowherd's wife for 
bread, but there was only a small loaf in the hut. 

Alfred looked up from the book he was reading, 
thought for a moment, and then bade the woman 
give half the loaf to the beggar. He said that the 
same Power which once fed five thousand men with 
five loaves and two small fishes, would also provide 
food for him and his men. 

Then he returned to his reading, and, being 
weary, he fell asleep. He dreamed that an angel 
appeared to him and told him that God was pleased 
with his kindness, and would soon bring him back 
to his kingdom, and give him greater power than 
before. In token of this, his companions would 
return that night from hunting with a plentiful 
supply of food. 

Alfred awoke full of hope and courage. By and 
by his men returned laden with game and fish. He 
told them of his dream, and they were all full of 
joy at the thought that things were changing for 
the better. 

An event now happened which raised their hopes 
still higher. The Danes, after fighting in Wales, 
crossed the Bristol Channel and laid siege to the 
castle of Kenwith, in Devonshire. The commander 



34 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 

of the castle, one of Alfred's noblemen, planned 
a night attack upon the enemy, so as to take them 
by surprise. 

One dark night he got his men together, and just 
before the dawn they rushed out of the castle, and 
came upon the Danes sleeping in their tents. In 
the darkness, the Danes were thrown into confusion, 
and did not know their friends from their foes. 

They were outmatched, and when they learned 
that their leader had been killed, and their banner 
taken, they fled in despair to their ships. Twelve 
hundred dead bodies were left upon the ground. 

When Alfred heard of this victory, he made up 
his mind that now was the time to go out against 
the Danes. So he sent messengers into all parts 
of the country, asking for soldiers to join him. 

The people were delighted to hear of their king 
again, for they had begun to think that he must be 
dead. Soldiers from all parts flocked to his stand- 
ard, and very soon he was at the head of a large 
army. 

V. ALFRED CONQUERS THE DANES. 

The main body of the Danes had made their 
camp on a hill at Edington, in Wiltshire. Alfred 
wished to know exactly how large their army was, 
and what was their position on the hill. 

He might have sent one of his own men to the 
Danish camp as a spy. Instead of doing so, he 



ALFRED CONQUERS THE DANES. 35 

dressed himself like one of the strolling harpers who 
used to follow an army from place to place, singing 
songs for the amusement of the soldiers, and in this 
disguise he went to the Danes. 

Alfred's memory was stored with old songs, and 
he was a skilful player on the harp, so that he was 
well received by the Danish soldiers when he 
offered to sing to them. While they sat in groups, 
drinking their mead and listening to his music, 
Alfred carefully noticed how their camp was placed 
on the hill, and formed an idea of their number. 

His playing was so good that Guthrum, the Da- 
nish general, heard of it, and ordered the harper to 
be brought to his tent. Alfred was in great danger 
of being found out, but he was careful of his actions, 
and, after playing for some time to Guthrum, he 
left the camp in safety. He had learnt all that he 
wished to know, and returned to Athelney with a 
plan of attack in his mind. 

He arranged that his men were to meet on the 
border of Selwood Forest. They came together as 
secretly as possible, but as they grew in numbers 
they became bold, and the forest was soon filled 
with the blare of trumpets, the clash of arms, and 
the shouts of the soldiers. 

The Danes heard the din, and Guthrum drew up 
his army in readiness for battle. Alfred's troops 
marched boldly to meet them. They began the 
fight at a distance with arrows, then at closer quar- 
ters they used their lances, and very soon it be- 



■56 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 



J&W^n 




Battle of Edington. 

came a desperate fight with swords and axes, hand 
to hand, and man to man. 

Terrible was the slaughter, and for long no man 
could tell which side would win. At last the Danes 



ALFRED THE KING. T>7 

gave way, and began to retreat. Hundreds had 
been killed, many were taken prisoners, and those 
who escaped took refuge in a castle. 

For fourteen days they were shut up there, not 
daring to come out and fight. Food and water got 
less and less, and at last, fearing that they would 
starve, Guthrum opened the gates to King Alfred. 

Then Alfred showed the nobleness and the wis- 
dom of a great king. He saw that it was impossi- 
ble to keep the Danes out of England, so he agreed 
to allow Guthrum to rule over the eastern part of 
the island if he would promise to leave Alfred's 
kingdom of Wessex, and never return, and if he 
would become a Christian. 

Guthrum was glad to agree to these very merci- 
ful terms. He came to see Alfred, and became his 
guest for some weeks, and was baptized as a Chris- 
tian under the name of Ethelstane. Then English 
and Danes joined together in feasts and rejoicings, 
and by and by, when Guthrum went to his new king- 
dom, he took with him many presents from Alfred. 



VI. ALFRED THE KING. 

Great as King Alfred was in war, he was still 
greater in peace. No king before him, and few 
kings after him, did more for the real happiness 
and welfare of the people. 

He drew up a book of laws for the protection of 
life and property. Men who did wrong were se- 



38 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 

verely punished, but no man was put to death for 
his crime. Alfred took care that the judges should 
be fair and upright men, for any who acted unjustly 
were heavily punished. 

Respect for Alfred's law was so great, that peo- 
ple said if apples of gold grew beside the public 
highway, a man might walk the country from end 
to end and not dare to steal them. 

Alfred showed great favor to religious men and 
men of learning. He wished all his people to learn 
to read. He was himself anxious to learn all that 
he could, and invited a learned bishop named Asser 
to leave his home in Wales, and come to live with 
him and be his teacher. 

Asser taught Alfred many things, and among 
them, the Latin language. When Alfred had 
learned Latin, he set about translating Latin books 
into English for the use of his people. He made 
a translation of a History of the World, and of a 
History of the English Church written by a good 
and learned monk named Bede. To the first of 
these he added two stories of travel, which were 
told him by the travellers themselves. Thus 
he tried to give his people knowledge and fresh 
ideas. 

In his reign, too, there was begun the Saxon 
Chronicle. This was the story of England from 
Caesar's invasion to Alfred's own day. Monks 
wrote in it, year by year, the principal events in 
the history of the country. 



ALFREDS LAST YEARS. 39 

After Alfred's death, the Chronicle continued to 
be written for nearly three hundred years, and from 
it we get nearly all our knowledge of the early 
history of the country. 



VII. ALFRED'S LAST YEARS. 

Alfred is said to have invented a clever way of 
telling the time, for there were no clocks or watches 
then. He noticed hovv evenly the candles, used in 
his palace and in the churches, burnt down, and he 
found out by careful trial the size of a candle which 
would burn exactly three inches in an hour. 

Then he ordered a large number of these candles 
to be made, each of them one foot long. They 
were marked off in inches, so that each inch of 
candle lasted twenty minutes, and each candle 
lasted four hours. 

By taking care that such candles were always 
kept burning, he made it possible to know exactly 
how the time was going. This was a great help 
for those who had work to do. 

In those days the windows, even in castles and 
palaces, were often mere holes in the walls, for glass 
was then not used in England. On a rough day, 
the wind, sweeping in through these holes, blew the 
candle flames about, and made the candles burn 
faster than they were meant to do. 

Alfred set his wits to work to prevent this. He 
knew that horn, when softened with hot water, 



4-0 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 

could be cut into very thin plates, through which 
light would easily pass. So he set some thin strips 
of horn into the sides of a wooden box, and thus 
made a rough lantern, in which his candle-clocks 
would burn steadily. 

Now that he could exactly measure time, Alfred 
is said to have divided his day into three parts of 
eight hours each. One he gave to sleep and food 
and exercise, another to the business of the country, 
and the third to religion and study and the care of 
Church matters. 

This great king is sometimes called the Founder 
of the British Navy. For he spent great pains in 
building ships which, as we have seen, were able to 
drive away the ships of the Danes. 

Alfred's last years were disturbed by more 
troubles with the Danes. Under a fierce leader, 
named Hasting, fresh bands of the Northmen 
poured into the country. For several years Alfred 
fought them on sea and land, and at length was 
able to drive them out. 

Only four years afterwards, the great king's 
useful life came to a peaceful end. As he lay 
on his deathbed, he called to him his son Edward, 
a young man who had many of his father's fine 
qualities. 

"Thou, my dear son," said the dying king, "set 
thee now beside me, and I will deliver to thee true 
counsel. I feel that my last hour is nigh. My 
strength is gone from me ; my countenance is 



ALFREDS LAST YEARS. 4 1 

wasted and wan. My days are almost come to an 
end, and it is time for us to part. 

" I go to another world, and thou art to be left 
alone to hold all that which I have held to this 
time. I pray thee, my dear child, to be a father to 
thy people. Be the children's father and the 
widow's friend. 

" Comfort the poor, protect and shelter the weak, 
and, with all thy might, right that which is wrong. 
Then shall the Lord love thee, and God himself 
shall be thy great reward." 

So King Alfred passed away. He was fifty-two 
years old. His body was buried in the cathedral at 
Winchester, and his kingdom passed peacefully to 
his son. 

Alfred's people loved and admired him : he was 
so calm and patient, so earnest and sincere, so eager 
to please them and to do them good, and so careless 
of his own pleasure. Alfred the Truth-teller they 
called him : afterwards he was known as Alfred the 
Great. 



THE DANES IN ENGLAND. 
I. THE DANISH CONQUEST. 

For more than a hundred years after the death of 
Alfred the Great, the English kings had to fight 
hard against fresh bands of Danes. First Alfred's 
son Edward, then his grandson Athelstan, led their 
armies against the invaders, and showed themselves 
to be able warriors, as they were also good kings. 

Athelstan won a splendid victory over a large 
force of Danes and Scots, in which five Danish 
kings and seven earls were among the slain. But, 
in course of time, there came to the throne kings 
who were neither so brave nor so wise as King 
Alfred and his family. The most foolish of these 
was Ethelred, who became known as the King of 
Ill-counsel. 

It was in a very shameful way that he became 
king. His half-brother Edward was king, but his 
mother wished Ethelred, her other son, to reign. 
One day Edward was out riding in the country, 
and, becoming very thirsty, he called at the house of 
his stepmother, and asked for something to drink. 
She came to the door herself, bringing a cup of 
wine which Edward took from her hand, still sitting 
on his horse. 

42 



THE DANISH CONQUEST. 43 

While he was drinking, one of his stepmother's 
servants came behind him, and stabbed him in the 
back. Edward put his horse to the gallop, but soon 
became faint from the loss of blood, and fell from 
the saddle. His foot stuck in the stirrup, and he 
was dragged along the ground by his startled horse 
until he died. 

Ethelred then became king, and the reign thus 
badly begun went on badly. Danes came in large 
numbers over the sea ; they sailed up the Humber, 
slaying and robbing ; they even sailed up the Thames 
and threatened London. 

The foolish king paid them a large sum of money 
to leave England, but they soon returned, and laid 
waste the country worse than before. Ethelred 
again gave them money, which he got together by 
putting a tax upon the people. This tax was known 
as Danegeld, that is, Dane-money. 

Then there came into Ethelred's mind the terrible 
thought of killing the Danes who were settled in his 
kingdom. On St. Brice's day his plan was carried 
out. The English slew all the Danes upon whom 
they could lay hands, — men, women, and children. 
Among those who were killed was the sister of the 
Danish King Sweyn, who, when he heard the news, 
swore to take England from Ethelred. 

For several years the Danes kept up their attacks 
on England, destroying churches, burning towns 
and villages, and slaying without mercy. Then, 
with one mighty effort, they overcame the last 



44 THE DANES IN ENGLAND. 

feeble defence of the English, captured Oxford, 
Winchester, and London, and drove Ethelred in 
flight over sea to Normandy. 



II. THE DANISH KINGS. 

Sweyn, the king of Denmark, died only a few 
weeks after the flight of Ethelred, who then returned 
to his kingdom. The English king died two years 
later, and his son, Edmund Ironside, became king. 

Edmund at once had to fight against Canute, the 
son of Sweyn. Five great battles were fought, in 
some of which Edmund was the victor. But at the 
battle of Ashdown, in Essex, the English were 
beaten by the Danes, and then the kingdom was 
divided between Edmund and Canute. 

Only a few months afterwards Edmund died, and 
then Canute became sole king of England. Canute 
was a little man, but as bold and fierce as a lion, 
and a most able warrior. 

As a king he showed himself both wise and 
merciful. He kept the country at peace, and took 
care that justice was done, in this way earning the 
love of his people. He paid great respect to the 
Church, and once went as a pilgrim to Rome. He 
gave splendid gifts to churches and religious houses, 
and was a good friend to the monks. 

An old story tells how he was going one day by 
boat to Ely to keep a church festival, and heard the 



46 THE DANES IN ENGLAND. 

sweet song of the monks as he came near. Then 
he bade the rowers sing with him, and composed a 
little song for them to sing — 

Merrily sang the monks in Ely, 

As Canute the king rowed by. 
Row, boatmen, near the land, 
And let us hear the monks sing. 

There is another story, which shows what good 
sense Canute had. Some of his courtiers used to 
flatter him, and say that so great was he that even 
the sea would obey him. 

One day, when the king was by the seashore with 
his courtiers, the waves came rolling up the sand 
nearer and nearer to Canute's feet. He sternly 
bade them go back, and when they still came on, 
he turned to the lords, saying, " One only is there 
who can say to the sea, thus far shalt thou come 
and no farther." And the lords sank their heads 
in shame, knowing that the king meant God, and 
that he intended by these words to rebuke them 
for their senseless flattery. 

When Canute died the nation grieved, for he had 
ruled wisely. His two sons, who reigned after him 
in turn, were savage, foolish men, in no way fit for 
their high place. 

After a reign of two years, the second of them 
died in a drunken revel at the house of one of his 
lords. Then the crown passed away from the 
Danes, and went to Edward, son of Ethelred, a 
quiet, saintly man, forty-one years of age. 



THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
I. HAROLD'S OATH. 

In the hall of a Norman castle, one day, there 
were met together many noble warriors and proud 
churchmen. Among the company were two men 
who seemed to be of more importance than the rest, 
for all eyes were bent on them. 

One was a tall, dark man, whose strong frame and 
stern look marked him out as a leader of men. The 
other also was tall and big, but his hair was fair and 
his eyes were blue; and, while his look was proud, 
there was something of discontent in it. 

The dark man was William, Duke of Normandy • 
the fair man was Harold, Earl of Wessex. The 
former was head of a race of men descended from 
fierce Northmen who had made a home for them- 
selves in the north of France. The latter was the 
most powerful man in England. 

At this time Harold was William's guest, or 
rather his prisoner. For, sailing down the English 
Channel, his vessel had been wrecked on the Nor- 
man shore, and William had taken him from the 
nobleman upon whose land he had been cast. 

William was glad to get Harold into his power. 
Both these strong men were aiming at the crown of 
England, and William had made up his mind to 

47 



48 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 

gain Harold's support for himself, by fair means or 
foul. 

So he had gathered his chief men together to 
hear Harold take an oath to him. In the middle of 
the hall was what appeared to be a table covered 
with a velvet cloth. By this Harold stood, and 
there, lifting up his right hand, he swore a solemn 
oath that he would be William's man, and help him 
to become king of England. 

Instantly the cloth was removed, and Harold saw, 
not a table, but a chest with a glass top, within 
which lay holy relics of the Saints. In the belief of 
the men of that time, Harold's oath was made more 
solemn by being spoken above these relics. 

Thus English Harold, though wishing to be king 
of England himself, was tricked into promising to 
help a Norman to be king. How was it possible 
for either of these men to entertain such a wish ? 

The king of England at that time was Edward, 
the son of Ethelred, known from his pious life as 
Edward the Confessor. He was a good man, with 
a fine face and kingly manners, and was beloved 
by his people for his wise rule and his love of 
peace. 

Edward had no children. The heir to the throne 
was a child, Edgar the Atheling, a grandson of Ed- 
mund Ironside. In those stirring times kingdoms 
needed at their head strong men, and not boys. 

Earl Harold was a strong man — a brave soldier 
who had showed some signs of having the qualities 



HAROLD S OATH. 



49 



of a king. Thus, though he was not of royal blood, 
he was looked upon by many of the English as the 
fittest man to succeed Edward. 

Duke William was also a strong man. From his 
youth up he had had to fight hard for his dukedom ; 




Harold takes an Oath of Allegiance. 



he had never lost a battle, and was famed as the 
greatest warrior in Europe. 

King Edward had passed his childhood in Nor- 
mandy, and loved the Norman people and their 
ways. He gathered Normans about him at his 
English court, and once, when William went to visit 



5<D THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 

him in England, Edward is said to have made a sort 
of promise that William should be king after him. 
Now it will be seen why Duke William was so 
glad to get Earl Harold into his power, and why he 
made him swear so solemn an oath. 



II. THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 

Edward died, and the Council of Wise Men, the 
great national council of England, chose Harold to 
be their king. When the news reached Duke Will- 
iam, he was speechless with rage. 

At once he resolved to win the crown of Eng- 
land by force of arms. First he sent messengers to 
Harold, demanding that he should keep his oath. 
But Harold replied that a forced oath was not bind- 
ing, and that he had been chosen king by the votes 
of the Wise Men of England. 

William then set about gathering together a huge 
army for the conquest of England. He sent word 
to the Pope how Harold had broken the oath taken 
so solemnly over holy relics, and asked his leave to 
punish so wicked a man. The Pope gave his con- 
sent, and sent him a banner which he had blessed. 

William, having got together his army, with much 
labor built a fleet of ships to carry it to England. 
Meanwhile Harold was preparing to defend his 
kingdom. 

Suddenly the English received news that an army 
had invaded them on the north. Tostig, one of 



THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 5 1 

Harold's brothers, had been banished from his Eng- 
lish earldom because he ill-used his people. He 
had now returned to take revenge, and with him was 
Harold Hardrada, the fierce king of Norway, to help 
him in battle. 

Harold of England hurried northward with a 
small army, met the invaders at Stamford Bridge 
in Yorkshire, and defeated them in a great battle. 
Tostig and the king of Norway were both slain. 

While resting at York, Harold heard that William 
the Norman had landed on the south coast. Hurry- 
ing with all speed southward, collecting forces as 
he went, Harold came within reach of his enemy a 
fortnight after the landing. Against the advice of 
his friends, he decided at once to risk a battle. He 
drew up his army on the hill of Senlac, a few miles 
from Hastings, and there awaited the Norman attack. 

Most of the English were foot-soldiers, armed 
with huge axes. The Normans were strong in 
horse-soldiers, and had also some archers. Again 
and again the Normans fell back before the terrible 
English battle-axes. William himself was struck 
from his horse, and a cry arose that he was slain. 
" I live ! " he shouted, tearing off his helmet so that 
his men might see his face ; " and by God's help 
will conquer yet ! " 

Presently he drew off part of his troops as if he 
meant to flee. Harold's eager men, forgetting his 
order not to stir from their posts, poured down the 
hill in pursuit. Then the Normans turned round, 



52 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 

and, pressing firmly in good order up the hill, smote 
down the broken ranks of the English. 

Still a fierce fight was kept up at the top of the 
hill, where Harold and his faithful body-guard wielded 
their deadly axes around their banner. William 
ordered his archers to shoot their arrows in the air, 
so that they might fall on the bare heads of the 
English. An arrow pierced Harold's right eye, and, 
as he tore it out, he was struck to the ground by a 
Norman knight. 

Over his dead body the fight raged on until not a 
man of his guards was left alive. Then darkness 
put an end to the battle. William had won his title 
of " the Conqueror," and sat down to eat and drink 
among the dead. 



III. COMPLETION OF THE CONQUEST. 

The Normans won the battle of Hastings because 
they were better armed and better trained than the 
English, and because William was a more skilful 
general than Harold. But the winning of this one 
battle did not give William the whole of England. 

At first the English, having no great and trusted 
leader, made little resistance to the Conqueror, who 
was crowned king at Westminster on Christmas Day. 
But when he returned to Normandy to look after 
affairs there, his English subjects rose in rebellion 
in many parts of the country. 

If they had joined together under one strong 



COMPLETION OF THE CONQUEST. 



53 



leader, they might perhaps have driven out the 
Normans. But their chief men were jealous of 




The Battle of Hastings — the Fight round the Standard. 

one another, and the men of the north would not 
help the men of the south. 



54 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 

The men of Kent took arms against the cruel 
Odo, William's brother, who had been left to guard 
the kingdom. The men of Yorkshire sought help 
from the Danes against the Normans. In the south- 
west, Harold's mother raised a rebellion against 
William, and the city of Exeter refused to own him 
as king. 

When William had settled his business in Nor- 
mandy, he returned to England and set about 
finishing his conquest. He put down the men of 
Kent, then marched to the west, and took Exeter 
after a siege of nearly three weeks. He showed 
mercy to the brave defenders, but built a castle to 
keep them down in future, and made them pay him 
large sums of money. 

Then he marched northwards, and Edwin and 
Morcar, the northern earls, gave in to him. But a 
year afterwards, help came from Denmark, and the 
north broke out again in rebellion. 

William bribed the Danish leaders to desert the 
English. Then, in order to punish the rebels so 
fearfully that they would never dare to rise up 
again, he laid waste the north of England. 

Crops and cattle were destroyed, farms and all 
that belonged to them were burned. Hundreds of 
men, women, and children lost their homes and 
died of hunger. Some people kept themselves alive 
by eating horse flesh, some even ate the dead bodies 
of their fellow-men. Others sold themselves as 
slaves to the Normans. 



HEREWARD. 55 

Thus a district which once had been fertile be- 
came a dreary waste. For many years afterwards, 
the unploughed fields and the blackened remains 
of ruined homesteads told the tale of the Con- 
queror's cruelty. 



IV. HEREWARD. 

When William had put down the rebels in the 
north, almost all England was his. Only in one part 
of the country was a firm stand still made against him. 

In the eastern counties there was a swampy 
district called the Isle of Ely, where a small spot 
of dry land rose above the rivers and fens which 
shut it in. On this spot a bold Englishman named 
Hereward formed his camp. 

Here for nearly a year a fierce band of English- 
men held out against the Normans. To the Camp 
of Refuge, as it was called, came many bold and 
desperate men who would not have the Normans 
for their masters. They made their home within a 
monastery, where they kept their weapons hanging 
from the roof in constant readiness for use. 

William went up with an army, but at first he 
could not get within reach of the rebels, because 
of the water. So he began to build a great cause- 
way of wood and stone, by which he might lead his 
men over the swamps. 

Many stories are told of Hereward's deeds — how 
he went to the Norman camp, once dressed as a 



56 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 

potter, another time as a fisherman, to find out all 
he could about his enemy. 

At last, some of the monks, wishing to find favor 



Hereward brought before the Conqueror. 

with William, showed him a secret way into the 
Camp of Refuge. The Normans entered and slew 
many of the rebels ; they also took many prisoners. 



RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. 57 

Even then Hereward was not beaten, for he es- 
caped to a ship which was kept ready for him close 
by. He sailed away, but came back at times and 
made himself a terror to the Normans. 

At last he was either defeated or he gave him- 
self up to William. Some stories say that he was 
taken into favor by William, who gave him lands, 
and took him to Normandy to help him in his 
French wars. 

V. RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. — i. 

William had shown himself strong enough to 
master the country ; he now showed himself wise 
enough to govern it. In the first place, to prevent all 
disputes, he said that all the land of England was his, 
and he gave much of it to his Norman followers. 

To keep down the people, he built many strong 
castles, such as the Tower of London. In these, 
soldiers were kept in readiness to put down any 
attempt at rebellion. In order to make his hold on 
the country still more strong and firm, William 
bound the nation to himself by means of the feudal 
system, which had already existed in France and 
Germany for two hundred years. This was as 
follows : — 

Every man who received land from the king had 
to do homage to him, that is, to swear to be his man 
and serve him in war with a certain number of 
soldiers. Such a man was called a tenant-in-chief, 
and the land he held was called \\\s fee ox feud. 



58 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 

He might let out his land in portions to tenants 
of his own, who had to make to him the same prom- 
ise that he had made to the king. Thus in time 
of war the king would summon his tenants-in-chief ; 
they would summon their tenants, and in this way 
a large army was brought together. Most of 
William's tenants-in-chief were Normans, upon 
whom he could depend to obey his call. 

It was important for William to know all about 
the land which he had thus got. He therefore sent 
men into all parts of the country, to find out who 
the owners had been in the days of King Edward, 
w T ho the present owners were, how much their hold- 
ings were worth, and what number of cattle and 
sheep they owned. 

The answers to these and other questions were 
written in a book called Domesday Book, or book 
of judgment, which is still to be seen in the British 
Museum. 

This inquiry offended the people, who said it 
was a shame for the king to set down in the book 
every yard of land and every cow or pig they 
owned. But the book was of real value in help- 
ing William to govern in an orderly way. 

Another act of William's caused great anger and 
had terrible results. This was the clearing of the 
New Forest. William was fond of hunting, and 
marked off several wide districts where stags were 
kept for his sole pleasure. 

One of these districts was in Hampshire, and was 



RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. 



59 



called the New Forest. There people were turned 
out of their homes, and villages were destroyed, in 
order that the land might be made into a hunting- 
ground. 

Severe laws were made, punishing very heavily 




Keep of Richmond Castle, Yorkshire. 

any man who hunted in the king's grounds. Thus 
the king, in seeking his pleasure, caused misery to 
many people. In the course of time he brought 
misery on himself too. For, before he died, a son 
and a grandson of his both met their deaths in the 
New Forest, most likely by the hands of angry men 



60 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 

who had lost their homes and lands when the forest 
was enclosed. 

The Conqueror's son, William the Red (Rufus), 
who became king after him, was also murdered in 
the Forest. People said that these deaths in the 
Conqueror's family were God's punishment for his 
cruelty. 



VI. RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. — 2. 

The Norman Conquest brought much distress 
on Englishmen. The Norman landowners harshly 
treated those who were under them, and men 
who had once been free, with land of their own, 
now became bond-servants on the land of others. 

But in the end the Conquest was of the greatest 
benefit to England. Before, the country had not 
been really united. Parts of it had been ruled by 
great earls who were almost as powerful as the 
king, and this was not good for the people. 

With William, however, the power of the king 
greatly increased, and his rule, while hard and 
stern, was firm and rested on law. This was bound 
to have good results in time. 

The invasion of England by the Normans had 
other good results. England had not had much to 
do with the rest of Europe ; and Englishmen, liv- 
ing in their snug little island, thought of nothing 
but their own concerns. 

They did not learn the new things that were 



RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. 6 1 

being learned by the rest of Europe. They were 
slow-going, backward in trade, in art, in knowledge ; 
their manners were rough, and their buildings 
clumsy. 

The Normans brought with them improvements 
in all these things. They knew how to build ; they 
were lively and dashing in manner ; they loved art, 
and were more polite and " gentlemanly " than the 
English. In short, they woke up old England, and 
gave new life to the nation. 

Although at first they treated the English as a 
conquered race, the two peoples soon became one. 
The Norman brightness and charm joined with the 
English solid strength to form the mighty race 
which now peoples and governs so great a part of 
the globe. 

The Normans spoke a kind of French, and at 
first the Norman nobles and their English depend- 
ents could not understand one another. But by 
and by French words and forms were taken into 
the English language. 

The rough old English speech was much im- 
proved by this mixture with the smoother French. 
The English language thus formed is now the finest 
language in the world, and is spoken by far more 
people than speak any other. 



THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
I. HENRY'S TITLE AND CHARACTER. 

Two sons of William the Conqueror were in turn 
kings of England. The first of them, William the 
Red, was an able but wicked man, and no one grieved 
when he was found dead in New Forest, with an 
arrow through his heart. 

The second of them, Henry I., was also an able 
man, and he pleased the English far more than his 
father and brother had done. He tried to deal justly 
and kindly with the English, and to make all men 
obey the law, great nobles as well as poor people. 

When he died, leaving no son, there broke out a 
terrible war between his daughter Maud and his 
nephew Stephen, who both wished to be sovereign. 
At length, it was agreed that Stephen should be 
king until his death, and that then Maud's son 
Henry should rule the country. 

Henry became King Stephen's adopted son, and 
when Stephen died in 1154, the nation gladly ac- 
cepted the young man, only twenty-one years old, 
as their king. 

During Stephen's reign, the country had been in 
great misery. Stephen himself was a good-humored 

62 



henry's title and character. 63 

and generous man, but, during the long civil war, 
he had been unable to defend the people from the 
cruelty of the great lords. Knowing that Henry II. 
was a strong and able man, the nation looked to him 
for relief. They were not disappointed. 

Henry's father had been the lord of a large domain 
in France. Henry's wife Eleanor was the duchess 
of another French province, and he was himself the 
Duke of Normandy. Thus the English king was 
lord of a greater part of France than was the French 
king himself. 

Henry was a strongly built man, with square broad 
shoulders and thick neck. His face was ruddy and 
freckled, and his hair was red, and cropped short. 
He had long powerful arms, and hands as rough 
as any ploughman's. He rode on horseback so 
much that his legs were somewhat bandy. His 
voice was harsh and cracked, and when he was 
angry, his flashing gray eyes made him look terrible. 

He was a restless and busy man. Indeed, so 
hard a worker was he that his servants prayed God 
to make their master a little more quiet. He dressed 
plainly, and lived on simple food, and would patiently 
spend whole days and nights in trying to think out 
plans by which to govern his people. 

Though he was a fine soldier and a great general, 
he was a lover of peace, and showed himself full of 
pity for the wounded. While he could not speak 
English, he knew several other languages, and was 
fond of reading, and of talking with learned men. 



64 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

He had a very hot and fiery temper, and would 
sometimes roll about on the ground in his rage. 
Things he had once read, the faces of people he had 
once seen, rarely slipped from his memory, and he 
was faithful to his friends and unforgiving to his 




Queen Maud's Chamber, Arundel Castle. * 

enemies. He paid great attention to his religious 
duties ; indeed, he was a strange mixture of good 
and bad. 



II. HENRY'S WORK FOR ENGLAND. — i. 

Henry proved himself to be one of the greatest 
kings that England has ever had. Early in his 
reign, he set to work to put down all those lords 



HENRY S WORK FOR ENGLAND 



65 



who brought misery on the people and who were a 
trouble to himself. 

These lords had built castles in different parts of 
the country, where they acted like little kings. The 
people around were entirely subject to them ; they 




Norman Castle. From a Drawing in Grose's Military Antiquities. 

1. The Donjon-keep. 2. Chapel. 3. Stables. 4. Inner Ballium. 5. Outer Bal- 
lium. 6. Barbican. 7. Mount, supposed to be the court-hill or tribunal, and 
also the place where justice was executed. 8. Soldier's Lodgings. 

could be imprisoned and put to death at their lord's 
pleasure, and suffered much in many ways. Many 
of the lords waged war against one another, so that 



66 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

it became impossible for people to till the ground, 
and their flocks and herds were always in danger. 

Henry destroyed many of these castles ; he made 
the lords understand that he would have the laws 
obeyed. The king himself travelled rapidly through 
the land, to find out exactly how the people lived, 
and how his officers treated them. He went from 
place to place so quickly, and took so little notice 
of difficulties, that he disgusted his servants and 
courtiers. 

Sometimes they would journey to a town where 
there were not enough houses for them to lodge in, 
and they had to put up with miserable huts, or even 
to sleep on the ground. They sometimes had no 
food but stale fish, and the coarsest black bread. 

One of the king's servants wrote : " If the king 
has proclaimed that he intends to stop late in any 
place, you may be sure that he will start very early 
in the morning, and with his sudden haste destroy 
every one's plans. You will see men running about 
like mad, urging forward their pack-horses, driving 
their wagons into one another, everything in the 
utmost disorder. 

" Whereas, if the king has given out that he will 
start early in the morning, he will certainly change 
his mind, and you may be sure he will snore till 
noon. You will see the pack-horses drooping under 
their loads, wagons waiting, drivers nodding, trades- 
men fretting, all grumbling at one another." 

Ashe passed through the country, Henry heard 



HENRY'S WORK FOR ENGLAND. 67 

lawsuits, settled cases which people thought the 
judges had not tried properly, and drew up charters 
granting rights and favors to towns and traders. 
He was thoroughly honest and just, and made him- 
self a terror to all false judges and cruel and unruly 
lords. 



III. HENRY'S WORK FOR ENGLAND. — 2. 

Henry's great work was the drawing up of a new 
plan of carrying out the law, which did much for 
the welfare and freedom of Englishmen. Up to his 
reign, most of the law business of the country had 
been done at the shire-courts. These were meet- 
ings held at certain times, in each county, and were 
attended by the lords of the county, the sheriff, the 
clergy, and people from the towns. 

Here, if a man brought a charge against another 
man, he had to bring witnesses to support it. The 
accused man had to bring persons who could speak 
well of him, and very often the question whether he 
was guilty or not was settled by the votes of the 
whole meeting. 

Sometimes he was tried by the method called 
Ordeal. He had to plunge his hand into boiling 
water, or to walk a certain number of paces holding 
a red-hot iron. If he received no hurt, he was be- 
lieved to be innocent. 

This way of settling disputes was very rough and 
ready, and often led to further quarrels. So Henry 



68 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

resolved to make some great changes. There was 
a King's Court in London, where the work was done 
by trained lawyers and judges. But few people went 
to it, for in those days travelling was difficult and 
cost much money. 

So Henry sent judges to hold Assizes in all parts 
of the country. The judges went on circuit, as it 
is called, visiting one place after another. They thus 
took the law to the people, instead of making people 
come to the law. In this way right was done, and 
the people knew that they could now have some pro- 
tection against their lords. 

The result of this was that the nation began to 
grow prosperous. The land was tilled, and gave 
good crops ; farms were safely stocked with sheep 
and cattle ; trade grew in the towns. 

Monasteries sprang up all over the country, and 
became centres of trade. Round the houses of the 
monks clustered barns and storehouses. The monks 
employed men to drain swamps, to turn stagnant 
water into running streams, to make roads and build 
mills. 

In Henry's reign, taxes were first paid to the king 
in money. In former reigns they had been paid in 
goods, such as corn, game, fish, eggs, cattle, honey, 
and beer. 

Knowledge and learning spread. Teachers gath- 
ered pupils about them at Oxford and other places, 
and English scholars went abroad, to France and 
Italy, to learn law, art, and science. 



THOMAS BECKET. 69 

IV. THOMAS BECKET. 

One of the greatest figures of Henry's reign, the 
first Englishman since the Conquest who rose to be 
head of the English Church, was Thomas of Lon- 
don. In those days family surnames were not 
known, but Thomas is generally called Thomas 
Becket, after his father Gilbert Becket. 

He was born in 1 1 18, in the London street called 
Cheapside. His father was a well-to-do merchant, 
and rose to be port-reeve, or, as he would now be 
called, Lord Mayor of London. Thomas was well 
brought up. He was taught in London and in 
Paris, and after serving for a time in a London 
office, he was taken into the household of Theo- 
bald, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

He soon became a great favorite with the arch- 
bishop. Slight and pale, with dark hair, long nose 
and straight features, he had a merry face and 
a keen mind. He stuttered slightly, but pleased 
every one by his frank and winning conversation. 

He was soon employed in important business, 
and received many favors towards the end of 
Stephen's reign. He became a deacon in the 
Church, and when Henry came to the throne, the 
archbishop advised the king to make his favorite 
Thomas chancellor of the kingdom. 

Thomas was very learned and industrious, and gave 
the king much help in his great and difficult work. 
Henry, like everybody else, became fond of his chan- 



7<3 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

cellor. They were always together. They sat 
together in hall and Church, rode out hunting to- 
gether, fought side by side in battle, and together 
played many a pleasant game of chess. 

Thomas lived in splendid style. He dressed in 
scarlet and furs, and in robes costly with cloth of 
gold. His household was of enormous size, and he 
had young nobles of the highest order to wait on 
him. His tables groaned under the weight of his 
gold and silver plate, and in the great London 
shops where cooked foods were sold, it was always 
Thomas's servants who bought the choicest dishes 
for their master, and paid the highest prices. 

Henry delighted to honor his excellent servant. 
He gave him rich gifts, and treated him as his dear- 
est friend. Sometimes he would go to the great 
hall where Thomas was dining, and spring over the 
table and sit down by his side. 



V. BECKET QUARRELS WITH HENRY. 

For several years the king and the chancellor 
were the best of friends. Then the Archbishop of 
Canterbury died, and Henry chose Becket to fill his 
place. 

Instantly there was coolness between the old 
friends, for a great change took place in Becket's 
way of life. He put off his fine clothes and wore 
sackcloth : the black frock of the monk took the 
place of the chancellor's fur-lined cloak. His table 



HENRYS WORK FOR ENGLAND. 



71 



was still loaded with dainty food, but the poor and 
not the noble were now his guests. 




His gay servants were sent away, and his house- 
hold was formed of forty solemn monks, with whom 
he spent hours in prayer and study. He visited the 



72 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

sick: every day he washed the feet of thirteen 
beggars. 

This change of life offended Henry, who saw 
that he could no longer depend on Becket doing 
what he wished. The archbishop put his duty to 
the Church higher than his duty to the king. 

The first quarrel was about a land-tax, by which 
the king wished to obtain a large sum of money. 
Becket said that the manner in which this money 
was to be got was unjust, and Henry, being in the 
wrong, had to give way. 

But a greater quarrel was about the Church 
courts. Clergymen who wronged their fellow-men 
were not tried by the king's judges, but by courts 
of clergymen. Henry thought that the punishments 
put upon the clergy by these courts were not severe 
enough, and wished that all men, whether holding 
offices in the Church or not, should be tried by the 
common law of the land. 

Becket declared that the Church would not give 
up its rights, and at first the bishops supported 
him. But when Henry threatened to take away 
their offices and their lands, they gave way, and 
Becket was left alone. 

The bishops and the Pope begged him to let the 
king have his way, and at length he agreed to do 
so. Then Henry called a great council at Claren- 
don in Wiltshire. Here Becket changed his mind, 
and the king gave way to a furious burst of anger 
against his old friend. 



THE COUNCIL OF NORTHAMPTON. 73 

The king's servants broke into the hall where the 
bishops were sitting, and brandished their axes above 
their heads. With tears and cries the bishops fell 
on their knees and besought Becket to give way. 

At last he said, " I am ready to keep the customs 
of the kingdom." Henry at once ordered these 
customs to be written down, and the famous Con- 
stitutions of Clarendon were put together. 

When Becket was asked to sign and seal this 
writing, he cried, " While I live I will never set my 
seal to it." But he appears to have given way at 
last, though unwillingly. 



VI. THE COUNCIL OF NORTHAMPTON. 

The Constitutions of Clarendon settled that the 
clergy should be tried by the common law, but 
Becket refused to obey them. " I will humble 
thee," cried the king, "and will restore thee to the 
place from whence I took thee." 

A certain John the Marshal made a charge 
against Becket in the king's court. Becket refused 
to appear there, and appealed to the Pope, but the 
king's council sentenced him to pay a fine. 

Then Henry held a council at Northampton, at 
which he called on Becket to give an account of 
certain moneys he had received as chancellor. 
Becket agreed to pay the king part of the money, 
but this was refused, and he was allowed a few days 
in which to submit entirely. 



74 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

The last days of the council came, and the 
bishops begged of Becket to obey the king. But 
the archbishop ordered them to be silent ; he put 
on his robes and said mass, and then set out for the 
castle where the council was held, only two of his 
servants riding with him. 

In his right hand he held his archbishop's cross, 
and crowds of people thronged about him, weeping, 
and asking for his blessing, for they believed that 
that day he should be slain. 

When the king heard of his coming, he retired 
with his chief officers to the upper room where he 
held private council. A messenger was sent to 
Becket demanding that he should withdraw his 
appeal to the Pope. He refused, and the barons 
cried out in anger when the messenger returned 
with the news. 

Then the lords passed sentence against Becket, 
declaring him a traitor, and the Earl of Leicester 
was sent to pronounce judgment. As the earl 
entered the hall where the bishops sat, the arch- 
bishop sprang up and raised his cross aloft. " By 
the right of my office I forbid you to pronounce the 
sentence," he cried. 

The nobles drew back, and, still holding his 
cross, Becket said, " I also withdraw, for the hour 
is past." As he passed proudly down the hall, 
cries of " traitor ! " were raided, and knights and 
barons followed him almost mad with rage. 

That night, helped by the darkness and a terrible 



THE END OF BECKET. 75 

storm, Becket fled from Northampton, and in a few 
days escaped to France. When Henry heard the 
news, for a moment he could scarcely speak for wrath. 
Then he thundered out, " We have not done with 
him yet ! " 



VII. THE END OF BECKET. 

For six years Becket remained abroad, and the 
Pope in vain tried to make peace between him and 
Henry. At length the archbishop found another 
cause of complaint. 

Henry wished the kingdom to pass at his death 
to his eldest son, and in order to insure that there 
should be no trouble he decided to have the boy 
crowned during his father's lifetime. This was a 
plan adopted with success by the kings of France. 

He therefore had his young son, Henry, crowned 
in Becket's absence by the Archbishop of York. 
But the right of crowning belonged to the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and the Pope declared that 
all who had taken part in the ceremony were cast 
out of the Church. 

Henry thought now that it would be wise to make 
friends with Becket, so he met him in France, and 
promised that he should return in safety to England, 
and that the crowning should be performed over 
again by himself. 

But the friendship was not sincere. As soon as 
Becket returned to England, he again declared that 



j6 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

he would punish the bishops, who thereupon fled 
across the sea to Henry in France. " What a pack 
of fools and cowards I have nourished in my house," 
cried the angry king, "that not one of them will 
avenge me of this one upstart clerk ! " 

Four knights who heard this hasty speech secretly 
left the court, and crossed with all speed to England. 
They hurried to Canterbury, and, seeking Becket, 
they demanded that he should at once submit to 
the king. 

When Becket refused with bitter words, the 
knights withdrew to arm themselves. It was 
time for evening service, and, putting on his mitre 
and robes, against the advice of his friends, the 
archbishop went into the cathedral. 

A noise was heard at the doors ; they were burst 
in ; and as the knights rushed forward, the monks fled, 
leaving Becket alone at the head of a flight of steps. 

One of the knights cried, " Where is the traitor 
Becket ? " " Here ! " cried the archbishop, " no 
traitor, but priest of God ! " Another tried to 
drag him down. " Come," he said, " thou art our 
prisoner." Becket thrust him headlong down the 
steps. " Away ! Thou art my vassal ! " he cried. 

One faithful monk was wounded in defence of his 
master. Then the knights fell upon Becket, struck 
off his mitre, and pierced him with many wounds. 
Becket fell dead, and as the murderers left the cathe- 
dral, a terrible thunderstorm broke over the place. 

The murder of Becket caused great distress 



THE END OF BECKET. 



77 



to Henry. For three days he ate nothing ; for 
five weeks he refused to see any visitors. Some 
years later he visited Canterbury, passed a whole 
night in prayer before Becket's tomb, and in the 




" No Traitor, but Priest of God ! " 



morning asked the monks to whip his bare back, 
in token of his sorrow for the wicked deed. 

Becket was looked upon as a martyr, and the 
people loved and honored his memory, and went 
as pilgrims to his tomb. 



78 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

VIII. HENRY'S LAST YEARS. 

Henry II. was the first English king who tried 
to conquer Ireland. The people of that country, 
who were of a different race from the English, 
were ruled by many kings, each at the head of a 
small kingdom of his own, and the kings were 
almost constantly at war one with another. 

Several of these kings joined together, and drove 
away a king who had offended them. He fled to 
Henry, did homage to him, and got leave to obtain 
the help of some English lords and knights, so that 
he might get back his Irish throne again. 

By the aid of Richard de Clare, commonly known 
as Strongbow, and of other knights, the Irish king 
was restored. Then the English knights fought 
against the Irish, and also against the Danes who 
had settled in Ireland, and took much of the land 
for themselves. 

Henry at last crossed to Ireland himself, in order 
to prevent his knights from getting beyond his rule 
and government. He restored order and received 
homage, but he soon had to leave the country, and 
then disorder and bloodshed broke out again. 

Henry was recalled from Ireland by a revolt of 
his barons. The power of the barons had been 
much reduced by Henry's wise measures, and they 
smarted under his iron rule. Numbers of lords, 
both in England and Normandy, joined together 
to fight against him. 



HENRY S LAST YEARS. 79 

He acted with wonderful energy. The king of 
France was amazed at the speed with which Henry 
went about his work. " The king of England," he 
said, " is now in Ireland, now in England, now in 
Normandy ; he may rather be said to fly than to 
go by horse or boat." 

Henry crushed the rebellion everywhere, but he 
never again enjoyed rest. His own sons, of whom 
he was fond, and to whom he had given many lands, 
rebelled against him. 

Henry loved his sons too well to fight against them 
in deadly earnest. He was forgiving, and wished 
to be at peace with them. Two of them were re- 
moved by death, but the two who were left, Richard 
and John, still troubled their father. 

At length Richard joined with the king of France 
in making war on Henry. The English king seemed 
to have lost his former power ; he was old, and 
weary, and ill, and hardly escaped defeat. . 

Then he had to give way to the demands of the 
French king. He had to do homage to him for his 
lands in France, to pay him a large sum of money, 
and to give up some castles to him. 

After agreeing with bitter sorrow to all this, he 
was carried in a litter to his castle at Chinon. There 
a list was brought to him of those who had rebelled. 
He ordered his chancellor to read it, and the very 
first name that he heard was that of John, his young- 
est and favorite son. 

" Is it true," the poor king cried, " that John, my 



80 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

very heart, whom I have loved beyond all my sons, 
has forsaken me ? " Then he lay down and turned 
his face to the wall. " Now you have said enough," 
he murmured ; "let all the rest go as it will, I care no 
more for myself and the world." 

" Shame on a conquered king ! " were the words 
constantly on his lips. Then in a few days he died. 



THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 
I. WHAT THE CRUSADES WERE. 

In the year 1094 a small, thin, haggard man might 
have been seen travelling through France on an ass, 
and stopping here and there to speak to the people 
who came about him. 




Peter the Hermit preaching the Crusade. 



His head and feet were bare ; his cheeks were 
hollow and worn with suffering. In his hand he 
carried a crucifix, which, as he addressed the people, 
he raised high above his head. Rich and poor 



82 THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 

came in crowds to hear what he had to say, and as 
they listened to his stories of dreadful cruelty, they 
groaned and shed tears. 

This man was Peter the Hermit, who had gone as 
a pilgrim to the tomb of Christ in Palestine. He 
had been cruelly treated, like many other Christian 
pilgrims, by the Turks, who then were masters of 
the holy place. 

In those days people thought that God would be 
pleased with them, and would forgive them their 
sins, if they went to Jerusalem to pray at the tomb 
of Christ. But the Turks were followers of the 
prophet Mahomet, and did not believe in Christ, and 
they did horrible deeds of cruelty to the Christian 
pilgrims. 

Now Peter had come to urge Christian people to 
raise a great army, and fight against these Turks, 
and rescue the sacred city from them. He preached 
so powerfully that hundreds and thousands of people 
were eager to do what he wished. 

In the next year a great council was held at Cler- 
mont, in the south of France. Thousands of people 
gathered to hear a speech from Pope Urban. The 
Pope told them that, if they went to fight against 
the Turks in Palestine, sufferings and torments 
might be their lot; but though their bodies might 
suffer, their souls would be saved. 

" It is the will of God ! " shouted the people. "Yes, 
it is His will," replied the Pope. " You are soldiers 
of the Cross ; wear then on your breasts or on your 



WHAT THE CRUSADES WERE. 83 

shoulders the blood-red sign of Him who died for 
you. 

This was the beginning of the Crusades, or Wars 
of the Cross. At different times in the course of 
two hundred years, nine of these wars were under- 
taken. 

Many thousands of people " took the Cross," that is, 
engaged to go and fight against the Turks. Large 
numbers of the Crusaders were sincerely anxious to 
do this, since they believed it to be a solemn duty. 
Others joined them simply because they liked fight- 
ing, and were eager to make great names for them- 
selves. 

Serfs were set free by their lords ; criminals were 
let out of prison ; debtors escaped from those to 
whom they owed money, in order to take part in the 
holy wars. 

Men who had lived wicked lives took the Cross, 
believing that by fighting the infidels they would 
earn pardon for their worst sins. Lords sold their 
lands and ladies gave their jewels, in order to buy 
arms and horses for the knights and men-at-arms 
who left their homes for the East. 

Not one of the Crusades was really successful. 
Sometimes they failed because of the folly of those 
who took part in them. Great armies set out for 
the Holy Land without having taken the least care 
to provide food for the journey. Thousands of men 
and women died of starvation. 

Sometimes they failed through quarrels among 



84 THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 

their leaders. They all failed in the end. Never- 
theless, the Crusaders did take Jerusalem, and it 
was for a number of years the capital of a Christian 
kingdom. 



II. THE THIRD CRUSADE. 

Richard I. was the first English king who went 
on a crusade. Richard was a tall, handsome man, 
thirty-two years old when he became king ; very 
strong and brave, and therefore called Lion-heart ; 
fond of showy dress, and wasteful of money. He 
w r as a fine soldier, a good speaker, and a warm-hearted 
though not a good man. 

Having raised great sums of money in all kinds 
of ways, Richard left England only six months after 
he became king. He was joined by the king of 
France and other great princes. 

On arriving in Palestine, Richard, by his wonder- 
ful bravery and strength, struck terror into the hearts 
of his enemies. He took part in the siege of Acre, 
where Saladin, the great leader of the Turks, was 
forced to surrender. The king of France then 
returned home, leaving Richard to advance alone to 
Jerusalem. The English king came within sight of 
the sacred city, but had to retire without capturing it. 

Soon afterwards, hearing of troubles in England, 
Richard resolved to return to his kingdom. His 
brother John, whom he had left behind, though not 
as ruler, was trying to take the kingdom from him, 



THE THIRD CRUSADE. 



85 



with the aid of the French king. So Richard made 
a truce with Saladin, and started on his homeward 
journey. 




At the Siege of Acre. 



86 THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 
III. RICHARD'S. ADVENTURES AND DEATH. 

Sailing along the coast of Italy, Richard's ship 
was wrecked, and he resolved to finish his journey 
overland. He had made enemies on the continent, 
and knew that the journey would be dangerous ; but 
he thought that in his pilgrim's dress he would be 
safe. 

He sent a servant of his, named Baldwin, to the 
lord of that part of the country, to ask leave for him- 
self and " Hugh the Merchant" to pass through on 
their way home from pilgrimage. Baldwin took 
with him a costly ring as a present to the lord. 

The lord looked at the ring, and said : " This 
jewel can only come from a king ; that king must be 
Richard of England. Tell him he may come to me 
in peace." 

But " Hugh the Merchant " (as Richard called 
himself) did not trust the promise, and fled, leaving 
some of his companions in prison. He went on 
with one knight and a boy. The boy was sent to buy 
food at a market near Vienna, and, as he had plenty 
of money, the merchants were curious to know the 
name of his master. 

He was forced to tell it, and then Richard's house 
was surrounded by a troop of soldiers, who called on 
the king to come out as their prisoner. Richard 
refused to give himself up except to their lord, who 
happened to be Leopold, Duke of Austria. 

Now Leopold had been with Richard in the 



Richard's adventures and death. 87 

Holy Land, and had become his bitter enemy. 
He was therefore glad to get Richard into his 
power. He put him in prison, but soon sold 
him to the German emperor for ,£60,000. Richard 
was then kept a prisoner in a strong castle. 

For a time none of his subjects knew where 
their king was. At last, as the story says, his 
prison was discovered by his minstrel Blondel, 
who wandered all over Europe seeking his master. 

Singing one day a song of Richard's beneath 
a small window in a castle wall, the minstrel heard 
the voice of his master faintly echoing the song 
from within. Overjoyed at hearing once more the 
well-known voice, Blondel hastened to England with 
the good news that he had found the king's prison. 
A large sum of money was at once raised to buy 
the king's freedom. 

Richard returned to England after four years' 
absence, having spent one year in prison. He 
now remained in his kingdom only two months, 
during which, however, he put an end to the dis- 
order caused by the rebellion of his brother John. 

Richard spent his last years in war with the king 
of France. In the tenth year of his reign, he heard 
that a great treasure of gold had been found buried 
in the earth on an estate in the south of France. 
As the lord of this estate was a vassal of his, Rich- 
ard demanded the larger share of the treasure. 
When this was refused, he besieged a castle be- 
longing to the lord, 



88 THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 

The castle was strong, and held out stubbornly, 
though the king threatened to hang every man, 
woman, and child in it unless it were given up. 
One day, as he rode round it, an arrow shot from 
the wall struck him. His doctors were clumsy, and 
made his wound worse, and he knew that he must 
die. 

When the castle was taken, the man who had 
wounded him was made prisoner, and brought 
before the dying king. " What have I done to 
you that you should kill me ? " Richard asked. 
" You have slain my father and my brothers, and 
taken all that belonged to them," was the reply. 

Then the generous king forgave the man, and 
bade his servants let him go in peace. Thus 
Richard died, and he was buried with his father 
in a Norman abbey. 



KING JOHN AND THE GREAT CHARTER. 
I. SIGNING OF THE CHARTER. 

On a summer day, in the year 12 15, a meadow 
near Windsor was the scene of an event which 
Englishmen look back upon as one of the most 
important events in their history. 

The chief figure in the scene was a king — a 
king so bad that no other king of England has 
borne his name. It was John, whose rebellion 
had broken the heart of his father, Henry II. 

John had been a bad son and a bad brother 
before he became a bad king. He had done his 
best to get the kingdom away from his brother 
Richard, who had in his noble way forgiven him. 
He was a mean, false, cruel man. When a lad, he 
had gone to Ireland on behalf of his father to receive 
the homage of the Irish chiefs, and amused himself 
there by pulling hairs out of their beards. 

He was at heart a coward, but played the bully 
when he had nothing to fear. He was greedy and 
wasteful, slothful and stubborn, bad-tempered, and 
guilty of all kinds of wickedness. He actually put 
to death his own nephew, Arthur, a boy of sixteen, 
because some of his French subjects wished to have 
Arthur as their king. 

89 



9Q 



KING JOHN AND THE GREAT CHARTER. 



And now, on this meadow of Runnymede, after 
sixteen years of misrule, King John was compelled 
to set his seal to a charter which made Englishmen 
forever free. 




John sets his Seal to the Great Charter. 

About him were grouped some of England's great- 
est men. There was Cardinal Stephen Langton, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, a wise and learned man, 
who loved England well. There were Robert Fitz- 
walter and William Marshal, great barons, who were 
ready to use their swords against the tyrant king. 



STEPHEN LANGTON. 9 1 

These men stood there while John unwillingly put 
his seal to the Charter drawn up by Langton. 

How did this Great Charter make Englishmen 
free ? Firstly, it settled what the rights of the 
people were, and showed that there were certain 
things which King John must not do. Secondly, 
it remained for future ages to refer to : whenever 
a king was inclined to act like a tyrant, there was 
the Great Charter for the people to appeal to. It 
was confirmed many times by succeeding kings ; 
upon it other charters of liberty were based. 

It laid down the rule that the king could not 
demand money from his people without the con- 
sent of the Council of the Realm. It declared that 
no freeman should be put in prison, or banished, or 
deprived of his goods until he had been judged by 
his equals according to the law of the land. The 
laborer's tools, the merchant's goods, were as care- 
fully guarded as the wealth of the barons. 

" To none will we sell or deny or delay right or 
justice " are trie famous words of the Charter. In 
short, it secured liberty and justice for all, — high 
and low, rich and poor. Let us now see what events 
led up to the signing of the Great Charter. 



II. STEPHEN LANGTON. 



John brought upon himself much trouble, and upon 
England much disgrace, by his wilful folly. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury having died, a 



92 KING JOHN AND THE GREAT CHARTER. 

new one had to be chosen. The right of choice lay 
with the monks of Canterbury. Some of the monks 
chose one man ; others, acting under orders from 
John, elected one of John's own favorites. An 
appeal was made to the Pope, who set aside both 
these men, and caused an English cardinal, named 
Stephen Langton, to be made archbishop instead. 

Langton was a great and good man. He was a 
hard worker and a learned writer ; it was he who 
first divided the books of the Bible into chapters as 
they are at the present time. Above all, he tried 
to persuade John to rule well. 

John was furious when he heard of what the 
Pope had done. For six years the new archbishop 
dared not come to England, so terrible were John's 
threats. The monks of Canterbury were driven out 
of their monastery, and the church lands were seized. 

In order to force John to admit the archbishop 
and restore the monks, the Pope laid the country 
under an Interdict, that is, he ordered churches to 
be shut up, forbade services to be held, and would 
not even allow the burial service to be used. 

John did not care for this ; the trouble fell only 
on the people. Then the Pope declared that the 
king was no longer a member of the Church, and 
that he must be shunned as an outcast. The Pope 
also ordered Philip, king of France, to take John's 
kingdom from him. When John found that Philip 
-was preparing to do so, and that his own lords were 
deserting him, he gave way. 



STEPHEN LANGTON. 93 

He allowed Langton to go to England ; he prom- 
ised to give back to the Church the lands he had 
taken from it. He even gave his kingdom to the 
Pope, and did homage to him for it ; he agreed to 
pay him a large yearly tribute. These were dis- 
graceful things for any English king to do. 

Meanwhile the barons were growing more and 
more weary of John's rule. Heavy taxes were laid 
upon them, and in many ways they were shamefully 
treated. The common people fared no better. 

At length, at a council held in London, Stephen 
Langton brought out and read to the clergy and 
barons the Charter of Henry I., in which that king 
had promised to rule England according to English 
law. The barons solemnly swore to compel John 
to rule according to this Charter. 

Some time after, when John sent to ask what the 
barons wanted, Langton, as their spokesman, went 
to him, and read out the articles which afterwards 
became the Great Charter. Then John flew into a 
rage, and declared that he would never agree to 
them. " Why do they not demand my kingdom 
also ? " he cried. 

The barons at once took up arms under Robert 
Fitzwalter, and were gladly welcomed by the citi- 
zens of London. Finding that his party was grow- 
ing less and less, and the party of the barons 
stronger and stronger, the king at last gave way. 
At Runnymede, as we have seen, he signed the 
Great Charter of English freedom. 



94 KING JOHN AND THE GREAT CHARTER. 

III. LAST DAYS OF KING JOHN. 

After John had signed the Great Charter, some 
of the foreign captains whom he had hired to fight 
for him taunted him with being only a puppet king. 
John flew into a terrible rage. He flung himself 
on the ground, gnashing with his teeth. 

Then, to show how little he cared for the Charter, 
he set about revenging himself on the barons. He 
got together an army of foreign soldiers, and the 
barons, fearing that they might be overcome, sought 
help from France. 

Louis, the son of the French king, went over at 
once with an army. He landed in Kent, and, with 
the aid of the English barons, made himself master 
of several towns and castles. 

The king, meanwhile, went about the country with 
his foreign army, destroying houses and castles, 
burning crops, plundering and slaying. At length, 
he was one day fording the river Welland with his 
troops. The tide came up before the whole army 
had crossed, and washed away all the king's bag- 
gage, while many of his soldiers were drowned. 

This caused such vexation to John that it made 
him ill. The same night at supper he ate heartily 
of some peaches, and drank a quantity of new beer. 
The result was a fever, of which he died. His death 
saved England from great troubles. The barons no 
longer needed the help of the French, and Louis had 
to return, though unwillingly, to his own country. 



• LAST DAYS OF KING JOHN. 95 

The new king was John's son Henry, a boy nine 
years of age, and the people hoped that the great 



King John's Army overwhelmed by the Tide. 

barons would teach the young king to rule wisely 
and justly. 



EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 
I. GOVERNOR OF GASCON Y. 

In the reign of John, a great churchman was the 
leader of those who stood up boldly against misrule. 
In the reign of John's son, Henry III., the lead was 
taken by a great baron. 

Simon of Montfort was not by birth an English- 
man. He was the son of a great French warrior 
lord, and was born about the year 1208. Brought 
up in the north of France, at the castle of Montfort 
from which he took his name, he went as a young 
man to England, and was kindly received by King 
Henry. 

He was handsome, brave, and skilful in war; in- 
deed, he was reckoned the finest soldier of his day. 
When he married Henry's sister Eleanor, and by 
and by succeeded to the earldom of Leicester, he 
became the most striking and important figure at 
the English court. 

It was not very long before a quarrel arose be- 
tween Simon and the king. Henry was a weak, 
foolish king: a far better man than his father, but 
of feeble will and fretful temper. 

The exact cause of his quarrel with Simon is not 
known, but he made such charges against the earl 

96 



GOVERNOR OF GASCONY. 97 

that Simon felt himself obliged to leave England. 
He went on a crusade, but when he returned he 
overlooked Henry's unkindness, and fought well 
for him in some battles in France. 

A few years later, Simon thought of going on 
another crusade, but other work was given him to 
do. Gascony, a province in the south of France, 
was the only one of all Henry II.'s French lands 
which now belonged to the English king. There 
were constant troubles in the province. Many of 
the lords wished to have the king of France for 
their king instead of Henry. There was no peace 
in the country, and the state of the poorer people 
was very wretched. 

Henry made Simon governor of Gascony, know- 
ing that he was wise and brave and a skilful leader. 
Simon proved a stern and terrible governor. He 
destroyed castles belonging to the rebel lords, and 
put down the bands of robber knights who roamed 
over the country burning and plundering; he took 
the part of the poor and weak against the rich and 
strong. 

Several times he put down revolts, and spent im- 
mense sums of his own money in the service of the 
king. Henry showed himself very ungrateful. He 
listened to mean and spiteful stories about Simon, 
which said that the troubles in Gascony were caused 
by the governor's cruelty. 

Simon demanded to be tried before his fellow- 
lords, and at the trial he made a strong defence 



98 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 

against the charges brought against him. He fin- 
ished with the scornful cry, " Your testimony against 
me is worthless, for you are all liars and traitors ! ' : 

Simon's defence was so good that the company 
of lords with one voice declared him innocent. But 
the very next day the king picked a quarrel with the 
earl. Simon asked Henry to keep a promise he had 
made when appointing him governor of Gascony. 
Henry replied that he would keep no promise made 
to a traitor. 

" That word is a lie ! " Simon cried angrily ; " and 
were you not my sovereign, an ill hour would it be 
for you in which you dared to utter it." 

A few days later Henry said to him, " Go back 
to Gascony, thou lover and maker of strife ! " Simon 
quietly answered, " Gladly will I go ; nor do I think 
to return till I have made thine enemies thy foot- 
stool, ungrateful though thou be." 



II. THE PROVISIONS OF OXFORD. 

One of Henry's worst faults was his fondness for 
foreigners. His court was filled with Frenchmen 
and Italians, who treated the English barons with 
pride and scorn. Henry spent large sums of money 
upon them, and most of' this had to be supplied by 
the English barons. They had to get the money 
from their tenants, and the whole nation suffered. 

Another thing in which Henry displeased his 
people was his support of the Pope. Up to the 




Earl Simon of Montfort and the Barons before Henry. 



LofC. 



IOO EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 

reign of John, the Pope had been looked up to only 
as the head of the Church ; but when John actually 
gave up his kingdom to him, he began to claim 
much more power in England than he had ever 
had before. 

The clergy and the barons were obliged to give 
him much money. He made foreigners the minis- 
ters of English churches, and some of them never 
went to England at all, but enjoyed the wealth of 
their English offices at their foreign homes. This 
was unfair to the English clergy. 

These and other things were so galling to the 
barons that they made up their minds to put a stop 
to them. A meeting of the Great Council, or Parlia- 
ment as it now began to be called, took place at 
Oxford. 

Here Henry was obliged to consent to the Pro- 
visions of Oxford, a plan of reform drawn up by 
Simon and his friends. The foreign favorites were 
to be sent away, and the king was only to act by 
the advice of a special council of fifteen. Thus 
the barons became masters of the country. 

About this time, Henry was one day going in his 
barge up the Thames, when he was overtaken by a 
sudden thunderstorm. Fearing its violence, he 
ordered the boat to be run ashore, and took refuge 
in the house in which Simon then lived. 

Simon welcomed the king, and told him not to 
fear, as the storm was well-nigh over. " I fear be- 
yond measure the thunder and lightning," replied 



SIMON AGAINST THE KING. IOI 

the king; "but I fear you more than all the thunder 
and lightning in the world." 

" Fear your enemies, my lord king," was Simon's 
answer; "fear those who flatter you to your ruin, 
not me, your constant and faithful friend." 



III. SIMON AGAINST THE KING. 

King Henry soon began to show that he- would 
not tamely put up with being ruled by his barons. 
He was helped by quarrels among them. Simon 
was not trusted by them all ; he was a foreigner 
himself, and had an overbearing temper, and for 
these reasons he was disliked by some of the barons. 

Henry soon broke his promise to observe the 
Provisions of Oxford. He brought back to Eng- 
land some of the foreigners who had been sent 
away, and showed that things would soon be as bad 
as they had been before. 

There was nothing left for the barons to do but 
to take up arms. Simon was marked out as their 
natural leader. He was trusted by the people, who 
believed he was thinking more of the good of the 
nation than of any gain for himself. 

Earl Simon acted promptly and with vigor. 
Foreigners were again sent out of the country, and 
Dover was captured ; then Simon sent a letter to 
the citizens of London, asking for their support. 
They gave it gladly, and kept Henry almost a pris- 
oner in the Tower of London. 



102 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 

The people were delighted at the thought of get- 
ting a better government, and loved Earl Simon 
more than ever. A verse of a song of the time 
says : — 

" Montfort is he rightly called, 
He is the mount and he is bold, 1 

And has great chivalry ; 
The truth I tell, my troth I plight, 
He hates the wrong, he loves the right, 
So shall have mastery." 

The earl marched to London, and the king once 
more agreed to the Provisions of Oxford, sent away 
his ministers, and gave their places to men chosen 
by the barons. 

In order to have matters settled once for all, and 
peaceably, both the king and the barons agreed to 
ask the king of France to decide the dispute be- 
tween them. His judgment was entirely in Henry's 
favor, but nothing else could have been expected, 
for one king would not be likely to say that the 
power of any other king, in his own country, should 
be lessened. 

The question now before the barons was : Is 
England to be a free nation, or is she to be bound 
down by foreign favorites and foreign priests ? It 
must be remembered that the best of the English 
clergy were on the side of the barons. 

They did not reject outright the French king's 
award ; they took up one part of it, which said that 

1 In French, Montfort means " bold mount," niont = mount, fort = bold. 



THE END OF SIMON. IO3 

England was to enjoy what rights she had before 
the Provisions of Oxford. They said that Henry 
had not observed the Great Charter, which secured 
these rights to the nation, and they were resolved to 
make him observe it. 

Earl Simon himself said, " Though all should 
leave me, I and my four sons will uphold the cause 
of justice, as I have sworn to do, for the honor of 
the Church and the good of the realm." 



IV. THE END OF SIMON. 

Civil war broke out. Everywhere there was kill- 
ing, burning, and robbing. Peaceful villages were 
filled with the horrid sounds of battle. Women 
and children trembled for the safety of their loved 
ones, and wept for those who were slain. 

After several sieges and lesser fights, a great bat- 
tle was fought near Lewes. It was won by Earl 
Simon after a hard fight, and King Henry and his 
son Edward were taken prisoner. 

Simon was now ruler of the country. He at once 
set about putting the government in order. Power 
was to be in the hands of nine councillors, who were 
to consult a parliament formed of barons, the chief 
clergy, four knights from each county, and also, for 
the first time in English history, two citizens from 
each of certain towns. 

This parliament met on January 30, 1265. The 
fact that the town sent members to it has led to 



104 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 

Simon being called the founder of the House of 
Commons. The parliament was not to make the 
laws as it does now ; it was to see that the king and 
his ministers ruled in accordance with the law — 
which meant simply the old customs of the country. 

Earl Simon's power did not last long. He was 
still distrusted by some of the nobles, and one of 
his strongest supporters left him. The king still 
had many friends who were working hard for him. 

At length Prince Edward escaped, by a daring 
trick, from the captivity in which he had been kept 
since the battle of Lewes. A new horse had just 
been given to him, and he said that he wished to try 
its paces. One day he went out with his attend- 
ants, and rode races with them till their horses were 
tired. Then he sprang upon a fresh horse, and gal- 
loped off. " Good day, my lords," he cried, " go tell 
my father I shall soon see him out of ward." 

At once the king's supporters gathered round the 
prince, and Earl Simon saw that a hard fight was 
before him. His own army was small, and he sent 
to his son Simon, bidding him come to his help at 
Hereford. 

The young man did not' hurry, and when he 
reached his father's castle at Kenilworth, he fool- 
ishly allowed his troops to sleep in the village, in- 
stead of in the castle. They were surprised by 
Edward at early morning, many were captured, and 
all their arms and baggage fell into the hands of 
the king's soldiers. 



THE END OF SIMON. 



!°5 



Earl Simon, knowing nothing of his son's mis- 
hap, went toward Evesham to meet him. He soon 
learned to his sorrow that the forces seen advancing 
were those of Edward, and, watching them from a 




The Last Fight of Simon of Montfort. 

hill, he admired the way they came on. " It is from 
me that they have learned that order," he said. As 
he saw how much larger Edward's army was than 
his own, the brave earl knew that defeat and death 
were near. " Now let us commend our souls to 
God, for our bodies belong to our enemies." 



106 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 

Simon was urged to flee, but he refused. There 
was a desperate fight ; the earl had a horse killed 
under him, but fought on foot, dealing hard blows 
with the sword which he wielded with both hands. 
At length a blow from behind struck him down, 
and he died murmuring " It is God's grace." 

Simon of Montfort was a good and a great man. 
He was sober and simple in his life ; his closest 
friends, bishop Robert Grosseteste and friar Adam 
Marsh, were the holiest men of their time ; he was 
a lover of books, and of good conversation. Simon 
the Righteous, he was called by the people. 

His faults w r ere his pride, his fierce temper, and his 
love of gain; but there is no doubt that he had a 
real love for his adopted country, and worked hard 
to secure freedom for Englishmen. 

After his death his cause triumphed, for King- 
Henry left the government in the hands of his son 
Edward, who ruled very much in the way that Earl 
Simon would have wished. 



THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
I. EDWARD'S EARLY YEARS. 

All the kings who ruled England from the time 
of William the Conqueror to Henry III. were far 
more Norman than English. Their names were 
French ; they spoke French ; their lands in France 
took up a great deal of their attention. 

Edward I. was the first king of England since the 
Conquest who bore an old English name. He was 
also the first who showed a real desire to understand 
Englishmen, and to make England, by the aid of 
the English, a great power in Europe. The work 
he did, and the wisdom he showed, made him one 
of the greatest of English sovereigns. 

In character he was altogether unlike his grand- 
father, John, and his father, Henry. His will was 
strong, but he was not obstinate. He was a good 
son, a good husband, and a good father. He lived 
purely and simply, and did not care for show or fine 
dress. " I should not be a better king," he said once, 
"however splendidly I was dressed.'' He loved 
truth and justice ; his actions were upright ; his 
motto was, " Keep troth," and he was faithful to it. 

His one great fault was a passionate temper, which 
sometimes blazed forth with terrible fury. On one 

107 



108 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 

occasion when Edward was thundering at a meeting 
of the clergy, the Dean of St. Paul's fell dead from 
fright. But Edward's wrath sank away as quickly 
as it rose. 

Towards the end of Henry's reign, Edward went 
on a crusade. He won one great victory over the 
Saracens at Nazareth, but did little else in Palestine. 

One hot June evening, as Edward was sitting 
lightly clad upon his bed in his tent at Acre, a mes- 
senger came to him with an urgent message from 
one of the Saracen chiefs. This chief had said that 
he wished to become a Christian, and Edward will- 
ingly received his messenger. 

The man entered the tent, and from his belt took 
a letter, which he gave to Edward. As the prince 
was opening it, the man struck at his heart with a 
dagger. Edward warded off the blow with his arm ; 
then, springing up, he felled the man to the earth, 
and killed him. 

Edward's wound was dressed, but after a time the 
flesh around it showed signs of poisoning. The 
prince's attendants looked sad, and the doctors 
whispered together. 

" What are you whispering about ? " cried the 
prince ; " can I not be cured ? Speak out, and fear 
not." His English doctor replied, " You may be 
cured, Sire, but only at the price of great suffering." 

Edward then bade the doctor do with him what- 
ever he pleased. Edward's wife, Eleanor, whom he 
dearly loved, wished to stay with him, but the doctor 



EDWARDS EARLY YEARS. IO9 

ordered her away, and she was led out weeping. " It 
is better, lady," said the attendants, " that you should 
weep than the whole of England." 




Prince Edward and the Saracen Assassin. 

Then the doctor cut away the poisoned flesh, and 
in a few days Edward had quite recovered. At a 



I IO THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 

later time a pretty story was told, that Eleanor her- 
self sucked the poison from her husband's wound. 

Edward was recalled to England by news of his 
father's serious illness. Before he reached home 
Henry was dead, and the prince became, at the age 
of thirty-three, King Edward I. 



II. EDWARD CONQUERS WALES. 

For many years there had been troubles between 
the English and their neighbors in Wales. The 
people of Wales were descendants of the ancient 
Britons. They would not submit either to the rule 
of the Saxons or the Normans. They loved their 
freedom ; and under their own princes they were 
constantly at war with the English kings. 

The chief of the Welsh princes, Llewelyn, had 
helped Simon of Montfort; but on the defeat of 
Simon he had done homage to Henry III. But 
when Edward became king, Llewelyn refused to 
do homage to him. An old prophecy of a British 
wizard, Merlin, had said that some day a Welsh 
prince should be crowned in London. Llewelyn 
fancied that he was that prince, and that he would 
become a great British king. 

Edward, who already in his youth had fought in 
W 7 ales, led an army against the Welsh prince. He 
went with great caution, taking care that, as his 
army advanced, a fleet should sail along the coast, 
carrying food for the soldiers. Llewelyn took refuge 



EDWARD CONQUERS WALES. 



I I I 




in the wild mountains of North Wales, but, in the 
winter, want of food compelled him to surrender. 

Edward then made an attempt to rule the Welsh. 
But he did not understand them, and though he 
himself wished to be just, the officers he appointed 



I 1 2 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 

to act for him were harsh and cruel. A new rising 
of the Welsh was the result. Edward led another 
army against them, and Llewelyn again took refuge 
in the Snowdon mountains. 

But Llewelyn was soon killed, and his brother 
David, who had helped him, was captured and 
hanged. Edward then took Wales as a part of 
his kingdom. He ruled it by English law, but 
he put several Welshmen in places of honor as 
his officers, and tried to keep some of the old 
W 7 elsh customs. To make all secure, Edward set 
up a strong line of castles and fortified towns. 

Sixteen years later, Edw r ard created his eldest 
son the first Prince of Wales, and gave him the 
government of that country. The young prince 
was born in Wales, and had a Welsh' nurse, so 
the Welsh people were fond of him. In later years, 
when the prince became King Edward II., and 
suffered cruel misfortunes, the Welsh people did 
their best to help him. 



III. EDWARD INVADES SCOTLAND. 

Edward, having conquered Wales, wished to 
bring Scotland also under English rule. That 
country had up to this time been separate from 
England, and was ruled by kings of its own. 

In Edward's time, it happened that the sovereign 
of Scotland was a little girl, daughter of the king 
of Norway, who had married a Scottish princess. 



EDWARD INVADES SCOTLAND. II3 

The little queen was not yet four years old, and 
was known as the Maid of Norway. 

Edward thought that it would be well if the 
two kingdoms were ruled by one sovereign ; so 
he proposed that the Maid, when old enough, 
should become the wife of his son Edward. The 
Scots agreed to this, and King Edward sent to 
fetch the little girl from her home in Norway. 

He sent with the ship plenty of the things that 
he thought the Maid might like, such as walnuts, 
figs, and gingerbread. But she was a delicate little 
thing, and the voyage across the rough North Sea 
was too much for her. She became ill, and the ship 
put into the Orkney Islands. There the poor little 
queen died. 

Her death was the cause of much trouble to Scot- 
land. There was no near heir to the throne, which 
was claimed by several nobles. Two of these, John 
Baliol and Robert Bruce, had a stronger claim than 
the others. The Scots, fearing that civil war might 
break out, asked King Edward to decide which of 
these two had the better right to the crown. 

Edward accepted the task and decided for John 
Baliol, who promised to rule as his vassal, and at 
once did homage to him. Afterwards, when Ed- 
ward demanded that Baliol should appear at his 
court to answer for some action of his, the Scottish 
lords would not allow their king to obey. Edward 
at once sent an army to Scotland to punish Baliol 
for not obeying. 



ii4 



THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 



Edward captured Berwick, then the chief seaport 
of Scotland. One of his generals won a great 
victory at Dunbar, and in four months Baliol sub- 
mitted and resigned the crown to 
Edward. 

To show that he meant Scot- 
land to be no longer a separate 
kingdom, Edward carried the 
Scottish crown and the 
royal jewels away to Eng- 
land. With them he took 
the stone upon which 
for ages past the kings 
of Scotland had been 
crowned, a stone which 
people said was the one 
on which Jacob had rested 
his head at Bethel. 
That stone may now be seen in Westminster 
Abbey, beneath the seat of the chair in which all 
English sovereigns since that time have sat at their 
coronation. 




Coronation Chair, Westminster 
Abbey, containing the Stone 
from Scone. 



IV. SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. 

Edward was not to rule Scotland in peace. He 
had promised, as in the case of Wales, to rule justly, 
after the old Scottish customs, but his ministers were 
severe and unjust, and the Scots rose up against them. 
Their leader was Sir William Wallace, whose life 
was one of strange adventure and daring deeds. 



SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. I I 5 

He was a bitter enemy to the English, and his 
enmity arose, it is said, in the following way. 

One day he was stopped in the streets of Lanark 
by some of the English soldiers. He was wearing 
a sword, which they said he had no right to do. 

Words led to blows, and Wallace, who was a 
very tall and strong man, slew one of the soldiers 
after a brief struggle, and put the rest to flight. 
But he then had to flee, or the governor of the 
town would have put him to death for what he 
had done. 

He escaped ; but the governor, a man of cruel 
nature, broke into his house and killed his wife. 
This roused Wallace's heart to a deep and lasting 
hatred of the English. He gathered round him a 
host of devoted followers, and resolved to turn the 
English out of Scotland if he could. 

After several small successes, he at last gained 
a great victory at Stirling, which forced the Eng- 
lish to leave the country. The Scottish people 
then made Wallace governor of Scotland, and he 
tried by wise and just rule to bring back prosperity 
to the land. 

During all this time Edward was in Flanders. 
When he returned, he resolved to regain Scotland 
at any cost. He gathered together an army of 
80,000 men, and marched towards the north. He 
took Edinburgh, but then serious troubles began. 
Wallace, who had only been able to get together 
a force of 20,000 men, was unwilling to meet 



Il6 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 

Edward in the open field. So he retreated before 
him, laying waste the land as he went. 

Edward's army soon began to suffer, as Wallace 
had destroyed all the crops and food supplies. 
Moreover, the ships that Edward expected from 
England with provisions did not arrive. When 
he was in this plight, and had given orders to 
retreat, the news came that Wallace was encamped 
at Falkirk, and was going to follow close upon the 
retreating English and make a night attack upon 
them. 

Edward rejoiced when he heard this. " As the 
Lord lives," he cried, " there will be no need for 
them to follow me, for on this very day I will 
march forward and meet them face to face." He 
advanced, and although, on the very morning of 
the battle, two of his ribs were broken by a kick 
from a horse, he led his army to the fight. 

The battle was fierce and long. Again and 
again the mail-clad horsemen of England charged 
the Scottish spearmen. Again and again they 
were driven back. At times the whole Scottish 
army, quite surrounded by the masses of the 
attacking party, seemed lost. 

But again the attack would grow less, and the 
Scottish spearmen, the front ranks kneeling, those 
behind standing, would be seen unbroken as be- 
fore. At last Edward withdrew the cavalry and 
threw forward the archers — those English archers 
who have decided so many a hard-fought fight. 



EDWARD LOSES SCOTLAND. I I y 

Arrows fell like hail upon the Scottish ranks, and 
where never a horseman had been able to break 
through, the arrows cut wide gaps. A charge of 
cavalry completed the defeat, and Scotland seemed 
once more to be in Edward's power. 

In the end Wallace was betrayed into the hands 
of Edward, who had him tortured without mercy, 
and put to death. This conduct is a great blot on 
the name of one of the greatest of the English 
kings. 

V. EDWARD LOSES SCOTLAND. 

The Scots mourned the death of their hero, but 
they were not long left without a leader. Another 
great man arose to carry on the work of winning 
back Scottish freedom. This was Robert Bruce, 
grandson of the Bruce who had been the rival of 
Baliol. Bruce, as a noble, had the help of the 
other nobles as well as of the people. Of Wallace 
the nobles had always been jealous, and they had 
given him very little support. 

Edward was now old and infirm, but his mind 
was still set on mastering the Scots. Again he 
marched northwards, though so feeble that he had 
to be carried on a litter. At Carlisle he mounted 
his horse and led his army in person, but so weak 
was he that in four days he only managed to ride 
six miles. At the village of Burgh-on-Sands he 
became very ill, and could go no farther. 

As he lay dying, he left a message for his son 



I 1 8 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 

Edward, who was in London. He begged him 
to go on with the war, and to carry his bones at 
the head of the army, so that, though dead, the 
great warrior might seem to lead his soldiers 
against the enemy. 

Then he died, at the age of sixty-eight, an age 
which few 7 men reached in those days. The great 
king was buried in Westminster Abbey, where we 
can read on his plain gray marble monument Latin 
words which mean, " This is Edward the First, the 
hammer of the Scots — keep troth." 

Although the Scottish war did not come to an 
end during Edward's reign, this is a good place 
to tell how Scotland at last won back her freedom. 

Robert Bruce, having been crowned king, gradu- 
ally took fort after fort and castle after castle, till 
Stirling was the only strong place in Scotland 
remaining in English hands. 

Edward II., a w T eak-willed and foolish man, gave 
himself up to pleasure, and for a time paid no heed 
to his great father's last words. At last he set off to 
the relief of Stirling. The largest and most splen- 
did army that ever entered Scotland w r as got to- 
gether, and at the little stream, the Bannockburn, 
near Stirling, it met the army of Bruce. 

Bruce, like Wallace, was a great general. But he 
was more fortunate than Wallace in having only an 
unskilled warrior to fight against, instead of the able 
and warlike Edward I\ Moreover he had a good 
body of cavalry in his army, and did not depend 



EDWARDS WORK FOR ENGLAND. 



II 9 



entirely on his foot-soldiers. When the English 
archers came into action, Bruce charged them with 
his horse, and scattered them. He thus avoided 
the fate that befell Wallace's army at Falkirk. 




At Bannockburn. The Scots kneel in Prayer before the Battle. 

By skilful generalship he completely overthrew 
the English host. From that time until his death 
Bruce ruled Scotland wisely and well, and kept his 
country free from the power of England. 



VI. EDWARD'S WORK FOR ENGLAND. 

The lessons which Edward I. had learned during 
the last years of his father's reign helped him to 
rule wisely when he himself became king. Great as 



120 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 

he was as a warrior, he was just as great as a law- 
giver. He made many changes for the better in 
the way of carrying out the law, and so made it 
easier for people to have justice done to them. 

Edward started the tax known as the Customs. 
Needing much money to pay the expenses of his 
government, he laid a tax on every sack of wool 
sent out of England. This he did with the consent 
of Parliament. The troubles of his father's reign 
had shown him that the king would be most truly 
powerful if he trusted the people, and took them 
into his confidence. 

It is to Edward that England owes her present 
form of government. He called together many 
parliaments during the first twenty years of his 
reign, and at length, in 1295, he summoned a parlia- 
ment in which all the different classes of the people 
— the clergy, the nobility, and the commons — had 
some one to speak for them. This is sometimes 
known as the Model Parliament. 

The barons came in person ; the clergy sent their 
bishops and other chief men ; the people sent two 
knights from each county, two citizens from each 
city, and two men from each borough. Thus Ed- 
ward took care that every one who had to obey the 
laws should have a voice in making them, and so 
he did much to help Englishmen to be free. 



THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR. 

After the death of Robert Bruce, when Edward 
III. was king of England, war again broke out 
between Scotland and England, and the Scots 
sought help from France to keep the English out 
of their country. 

It was partly this help given by France to Scot- 
land which led to that war between France and 
England which lasted for more than one hundred 
years. Fighting did not go on all that time, but it 
was a hundred years before England at last gave up 
the attempt to conquer France. 

Other causes of the war were, — the attempts 
made by the French king to take from Edward III. 
a French province which belonged to the English 
king, and the damage which French sailors did 
to English ships. The port of Southampton was 
burned by the French, and much injury was done 
to English trade. 

So Edward declared war against France. He 
obtained the help of the Flemings, the people of 
Flanders, a country on the northeast border of 
France. But in order to get their help Edward had 
to make a claim to the throne of France. For the 
Flemings said that they were the vassals of whoever 

121 



122 THE HUNDRED YEARS* WAR. 

was king of France, and they wanted an excuse for 
fighting against Philip, their true king. 

Edward's mother was a French princess, and 
Edward himself was the nearest male relative of 
the late French king ; but he had no real right to 
the throne. 

The war began with a sea-fight. Edward, learn- 
ing that a large French fleet lay in the harbor of 
Sluys, on the coast of Flanders, made up his mind 
to attack it, though he was warned how dangerous 
such an undertaking was. When his advisers 
begged him not to go, he grew angry, and cried, 
" I shall go ; those who are afraid where there is no 
cause for fear, may stay at home ! " He got together 
a fleet of two hundred ships, and set sail. 

In those days there were no cannon, and the ships 
did not fight at a distance with powder and shot. 
First the archers let fly a volley of arrows ; then 
the ships were driven one against another, and the 
English men-at-arms leaped on board the ships of 
the enemy, and fought with pike and sword. 

At the battle of Sluys the English were com- 
pletely victorious. They lost only two ships, while 
nearly all the French ships were destroyed or in- 
jured, and thousands upon thousands of French and 
Norman sailors and soldiers were slain or drowned. 

No one dared at first tell the French king of the 
disaster. At length the court jester called out, 
" What cowards those English are ! " Philip asked 
why. " Because," said the jester, " they did not dare 



THE BATTLE OF CRECY. I 23 

to leap into the sea as our brave Frenchmen did!" 
Then Philip guessed, from the jester's mockery, 
what had really happened. 



II. THE BATTLE OF CRECY. 

For several years after the battle of Sluys, the 
war went on slowly and with no success. Then 
Edward crossed to France with a large army, deter- 
mined to punish the men of Normandy and of 
Calais for their raids on the English coast. With 
him he took his eldest son, also named Edward, who 
was at this time a lad of sixteen years of age. He 
grew up to be so mighty and terrible a warrior that 
the French called him the Black Prince. 

The French were very backward to defend their 
country, and for some months Edward went through 
Normandy ravaging and burning. At length he 
reached Rouen, where he wished to cross the river 
Seine on his way to Calais. There he found the 
bridges broken down, so that his position was very 
dangerous. The French king was at hand with an 
army twice the size of his own ; to retreat was im- 
possible, to advance was full of danger. 

At length Edward repaired one of the bridges, 
and crossed, only to find before him another river, 
the Somme. Over this, too, the bridges were de- 
stroyed, all but one, which was in the hands of the 
enemy. He learned at last of a spot where the river 
could be crossed at low tide. Hastily he led his army 



124 THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. 

over, and had only just got across when the French 
army arrived at the bank the English had left. By 
this time the tide had risen, and the baffled French 
could not cross to pursue their enemy. 

Edward now determined to risk a battle. He 
drew up his army on a slope near the village of 
Crecy, where he waited while the French crossed by 
the bridge many miles farther up the river. 

He arranged his army in three portions, remain- 
ing himself in the rear with one part as a reserve. 
One of the other divisions was commanded by the 
Black Prince, who was aided by Sir John of Chan- 
dos, one of the finest soldiers of the time. 

Two days passed before the French army arrived. 
The battle began on the evening of August 26, 
1 346. The French soldiers, weary and hungry after 
a long march, were impatient and disorderly, for they 
expected to win an easy victory over the small Eng- 
lish army. The English had had good food and a 
long rest, and were seated on the ground, rank by 
rank, awaiting the enemy. 

When King Philip saw them his blood boiled, so 
much he hated them. He ordered his crossbow- 
men to advance, and the English sprang up to meet 
them. Just at that moment a terrible thunderstorm 
broke over the field. The rain fell in torrents, and 
so drenched the strings of the Frenchmen's bows 
that they became useless. But the English archers 
kept their bows in canvas cases, so that they were 
dry and in good trim. 



THE BATTLE OF CRECY. 



125 



Then the storm ceased as suddenly as it arose, 
and the sun shone out, right in the faces of the 
dazzled French. With a shout the French bowmen 
advanced, but when they were met by a shower of 




King Edward watching the Battle of Crecy. 

English arrows they threw down their bows and 
took to their heels. 

In vain the men-at-arms tried to drive them back 
to the fight. They could not face again those ter- 
rible arrows, which still flew thick and fast. But 
the French knights behind kept pressing on, trust- 



126 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 

ing to their greater numbers to break through the 
ranks of English archers and footmen. 

Then it was that a knight went in haste to King 
Edward, who was watching the fight from a wind- 
mill on the hill, and begged him to come to the aid 
of his gallant son. 

" Is my son dead ? " asked the king. " No, Sire," 
replied the knight. " Is he unhorsed, or so des- 
perately wounded that he cannot support himself ? " 
" No, Sire," replied the knight, " but he is in so hot 
a strife that he has great need of your help." Then 
said the king, " Let the boy win his spurs, for I am 
resolved that all the glory of this day shall be his." 

The boy won his spurs indeed. So well did he 
and his men fight that the French fled, after man)> 
of their bravest knights were slain. The battle 
ended in a complete victory for the English. They 
lost few men, while the French loss was enormous. 

The battle of Crecy is very important in one 
respect. It showed that the bravest and boldest 
knights of France were powerless against the sturdy 
English yeomen, with their bows and arrows. The 
men who had left their ploughs and their spades at 
Edward's call put to rout the finest nobility of 
France. The people won the day, and not the 
nobles. 

III. THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS. 

After the battle of Crecy, Edward hastened north- 
ward and began the siege of Calais. In those days 



THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS. I 27 

towns were strongly defended with thick walls, above 
which rose castles and turrets at various points. 
Cannon were not yet in use, and it was almost 
impossible to capture a town by assault. 

The plan of a siege was to surround the town, 
and keep the people shut up without any chance 
of getting food. This was done at Calais. For a 
whole year the English remained before the walls, 
living in huts which their carpenters had built, and 
which made a little town of themselves. 

The sufferings of the people of Calais were ter- 
rible. They made their food last as long as possible, 
and when it was gone they began to eat their 
horses, dogs, and cats, and even began to speak of 
eating one another. 

They hoped to hold out till an army came to 
relieve them, but though a French army came quite 
near, the soldiers so feared the English that they 
went away again without righting. 

At last the governor of the town offered to sur- 
render, if Edward would allow the people to depart 
unharmed. A brave English knight, Sir Walter 
Manny, asked Edward to agree to this, but the king 
refused. However, he consented to spare the citi- 
zens, if they gave up to him six of the chief men 
among them. These were to come to him bare- 
headed and barefooted, with ropes about their necks, 
bringing the keys of the city. "On them," said the 
king in his anger, " I will work my will ! " 

The poor starving people were sad when they 



128 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 

heard these hard terms. They met in the market- 
place at the ringing of a bell. There the richest 
man in the town stepped forward and spoke. " My 
friends," he said, " it would be a pity for all our 
people to die of famine. Whoever dies for his 
people will find grace and pardon in the sight of 
God. I will be the first, and willingly will I yield 
myself, in nothing but my shirt, with my head bare 
and a halter round my neck, to the mercy of the 
king of England." 

Women threw themselves at his feet with tears, 
blessing him. Five other noble-minded men joined 
themselves with him, and all six went out of the city, 
and came to meet Edward. 

The English king sat in state to receive them, his 
queen by his side, and many nobles around him. The 
six men fell humbly at his feet, and, offering him 
the keys, begged him to have mercy upon them, and 
spare their lives. 

Barons and knights wept as they beheld the piti- 
ful sight. Sir Walter Manny pleaded for the cap- 
tives : " Let not the world have cause to speak ill of 
your cruelty," he said to the king. 

But Edward looked at them with angry eyes. 
He could not forget what injuries the men .of 
Calais had done to English seamen. Then Queen 
Philippa fell on her knees before the king, and 
said with tears : " My gentle sir, since I crossed 
the seas with great danger to see you, not one 
favor have I asked of you ; now I humbly beg 



THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS. I 29 

that for love of Christ and of me you will have 
mercy on these men." 

For a time Edward looked at her in silence. Then, 
raising her tenderly, he said : " My lady, I could 
wish that you had not been here, but I cannot re- 




The Queen begs Edward to spare the Men of Calais. 

fuse you ; I give them to you to do with as you 
please." Then the queen took the men of Calais to 
her tent, where she had them fed and clothed, and 
sent them away with a present of money. 



I30 THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. 

IV. POICTIERS AND AGINCOURT. 

The war lingered on for several years. Ten years 
after the battle of Crecy, the Black Prince won a 
splendid victory at Poictiers, where he captured the 
king of France, who was carried a prisoner to Lon- 
don. After the battle of Poictiers, the English won 
no great successes in France for many years. 

The Black Prince wore himself out with constant 
warfare, and died before his father. He proved him- 
self to be a great, though a merciless, soldier, and 
Englishmen were proud of him ; but they liked him 
still better in his last years, when, though ill and 
weak, he did his best to improve the government of 
his country. 

About sixty years after the battle of Poictiers, an- 
other wonderful victory was won by the English in 
France. The English king, Henry V., was a young 
man twenty-eight years old. He was warlike in 
character, and longed to conquer France. So he 
raised again the claim to the French crown which 
Edward III. had made. 

In his younger days, when Prince of Wales, Henry 
is said to have behaved in ways unworthy of a prince. 
Stories are told of him robbing travellers and play- 
ing other pranks with a crew of idle rogues. 

One of these stories is somewhat to his credit. A 
comrade of his was brought one day before the chief 
justice, charged with an offence against the law. 
The prince, hearing of this, came to the court in a 



POICTIERS AND AGINCOURT. 



131 



rage, and ordered the prisoner to be released. The 
judge refused to release him, whereupon the prince 




Prince Henry and the Chief Justice. 

came angrily up to the judge's seat, and the on- 
lookers in terror expected to see him kill the judge. 
But the judge, looking calmly at the hot-headed 
youth, rebuked him for setting a bad example to his 



I32 THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. 

father's subjects, and ordered him to prison. The 
prince's attendants would have fought the officers of 
the law ; but the prince, seeing how wrong he had 
been, forbade them to lift a hand for him, and went 
humbly to his punishment. His father, when he 
heard the story, said how glad he was to find he 
had so just a judge and so obedient a son. 

Henry proved to be a splendid soldier. At Agin- 
court, a village a few miles north of Crecy, he de- 
feated, with ten thousand men, a French army five 
times as large. 

The English were hungry and tired, but eager for 
the fight. The French hesitated to make an attack, 
whereupon Henry ordered his archers to advance. 
They obeyed with a shout, and planting in the 
ground before them a row of thick stakes sharpened 
at both ends, they shot their arrows into the ranks 
of the French horsemen. 

The French charged, but their horses' legs stuck 
fast in the mud, the ground being a ploughed field 
soaked with rain. Those who got free could not 
pass the close hedge of stakes, and hundreds were 
slain. Many of the greatest nobles of France per- 
ished ; eleven thousand French lay dead on the 
field, but on the English side only a few men fell. 

After the battle, it was arranged that Henry 
should become king of France on the death of the 
king then reigning, but only seven years later 
Henry died, without having been able to call 
France his own kingdom, as he had wished to do. 



JOAN OF ARC. 133 

V. JOAN OF ARC — 1. 

At Henry's death, the chief part in the French 
war was taken by his brother, the Duke of Bedford. 
Bedford was a skilful warrior, and a wise statesman, 
who, within fifteen years of the battle of Agincourt, 
had made himself master of almost the whole of the 
north of France. One great town alone, the town 
of Orleans, remained to the French. If that were 
captured, Bedford believed that he would be able to 
conquer the kingdom of France. 

So he laid siege to Orleans for many months. 
The French made a stout defence against his 
attacks, but could not drive him away. All the 
attempts of the French to relieve Orleans having 
failed, it seemed as though the town must give in. 
At this serious moment a savior appeared for 
Orleans, almost as by a miracle. It was a young 
girl of seventeen, whose memory is to this day 
loved by the French as that of a saint and martyr. 

Her name was Joan of Arc, and she is sometimes 
called the Maid of Orleans. Her father was a poor 
peasant, and the little girl grew up in a quiet coun- 
try village, far away from the scenes of war. She 
was very ignorant; she could neither read nor 
write ; all her skill lay in sewing and spinning ; but 
now and then she went to the field to tend her 
father's sheep. 

She was gentle and good. Her mother had 
taught her to pray; she loved to sit and dream, 



134 THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. 

and think over the stories of angels which she had 
been told. 

As she grew older, stories of the horrors and 
miseries caused by war filled Joan's simple mind 
with sorrow. By and by her own village began to 
suffer, and she became more and more sad. She 
felt great pity for the realm of France. 

Suddenly she began to hear, as she thought, 
voices in the air calling her as the Voice called 
the boy Samuel of old. She paid little heed to 
them at first, but one day a voice said, " Joan, 
you are called to live another life, and to do mar- 
vellous things ; for it is you whom God has chosen 
to bring happiness to France, and to render aid to 
King Charles." 

VI. JOAN OF ARC — 2. 

Distrusting the voice no longer, Joan went to a 
great captain and she told her story. He laughed 
at her,' called her a foolish girl, and bade her go 
home to her parents. Joan sadly returned, but she 
still heard the voices. By and by her village was 
burned and its church destroyed. Joan could wait 
no longer ; again she went to the captain, who this 
time paid more attention to what she said, and at 
last agreed to send her to Charles. 

Armed like a soldier and riding on a black horse, 
the young girl set out. She was tall and strongly 
built, with a pleasant face, beautiful black hair, and 



JOAN OF ARC. 135 

a sweet voice. When she came to Charles she 
begged him to give her an army, and allow her to 
go to Orleans. At first Charles thought her re- 
quests fit only to be laughed at. But by and by 
his doubts were overcome by the maid's earnestness 




Joan of Arc at the head of her Troops. 

and purity of heart, and he gave her a suit of white 
armor and bade her go. 

Clad in her armor, mounted on a white horse, 
and bearing a white banner embroidered with lilies, 
Joan set out with an army for Orleans. The rough 
soldiers adored her, and for her sake they gave up 



I36 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 

some of their bad habits and lived more decent 
lives. 

The English had heard of her, and were so over- 
come with terror when she appeared, that they 
allowed her to pass into Orleans with food for the 
starving people. They could not believe that any 
woman but a witch would dare to engage in such 
dangerous work, and they were not there to fight 
against witches. 

In a few days the French captured several of the 
English forts. The presence of the Maid gave them 
courage. A few days more, and Orleans was saved. 
The English had so lost heart that they withdrew 
from the place. Then Joan went to Rheims, where 
the kings of France were crowned, and stood by the 
side of Charles at the altar, unfolding her lily-white 
banner as the crown was placed on his head. 

Unhappily Joan did not return to her country 
home ; she remained with the soldiers, still leading 
and cheering them, until by and by she was taken 
prisoner by the troops of one of Charles's enemies, 
and handed over to the English. Those were cruel 
times, when terrible deeds were sometimes done in 
the name of religion. The English had Joan brought 
to trial, and accused of being a witch, and of acting 
as no Christian woman would act. 

Such charges were monstrous and cruel, but her 
enemies were resolved to put out of the world the 
brave and good girl who had saved France. She 
was condemned, and on May 30th, 1431, in the 



JOAN OF ARC. I37 

market-place of Rouen, Joan was burned to death. 
Some even of her cruel English enemies shed tears 
as they watched her sufferings ; and as she bent for- 
ward and murmured the name of Jesus ere she died, 
an Englishman standing by hung his head in shame. 
" We are lost ! " he said, " we have burnt a saint ! " 

The English cause was indeed lost. The Duke 
of Bedford soon died, and there was no able man 
to replace him. Twenty years after the death of 
Joan, England had lost all that she had won in 
France except Calais : that remained an English 
town for two hundred years. 



THE BLACK DEATH AND THE STATE OF 

ENGLAND. 

I. THE BLACK DEATH. 

During the early part of the Hundred Years' 
War, England was fairly prosperous. Edward III. 
had encouraged trade ; for his wars cost much money, 
and as the money had to be provided in part by taxes 
on the people, it could not be got unless trade was 
good. 

He brought Flemish weavers to England, and 
tried to improve the English manufacture of wool. 
The trading classes during his reign grew much in 
wealth and importance. The plunder gained in the 
war also helped to make England rich. The nobles, 
indeed, became wasteful, and spent large sums on 
their pleasures and their dress. 

In the midst of all this, a dreadful plague fell 
upon the country. It was a strange disease, which 
came from the east of Europe, and spread with awful 
speed. No one could check it. It was helped by 
the dirty habits of the people and the filthy state of 
their houses and towns ; for in those days people did 
not know, as we now know, how important it is to 
be clean if we wish to be healthy. 

This disease, known as the Black Death, carried 

138 



THE BLACK DEATH. I 39 

off thousands upon thousands of the people, for the 
most part from among the poor. But though it was 
so terrible at the time, it brought great good to Eng- 
lish workmen in after years. So many poor laborers 
died, that it was not easy to find men to till the 
fields. Those who were left demanded higher wages 
than the landlords could well afford to pay, so that 
some landlords left their crops to perish rather than 
pay men to reap them. 

Two years after the plague, Parliament passed 
a famous law on behalf of the landlords, by which 
an attempt was made to fix wages at a low rate, and 
in other ways to keep the laborers down. 

At that time the country laborers were little bet- 
ter than slaves. They were not allowed to go from 
place to place in search of higher wages ; they had 
to put up with what they could get, and to serve the 
masters on whose land they were born. If they 
tried to escape, and were captured, they were 
branded with a red-hot iron. 

When wages rose after the Black Death, the la- 
borers who were not contented wished more than 
ever for freedom to go about in search of mas- 
ters who would pay them better. But the masters 
would not allow them to do so, and began to treat 
them more harshly than ever. Things got worse 
and worse, until, in the reign of Richard II., grand- 
son of Edward III., a rebellion broke out. 



I40 THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 

II. WAT TYLER'S REBELLION. 

The laborers had many reasons for their discon- 
tent. Some of the wilder spirits among them now 
began to stir up their fury by asking why they were 
laborers at all. A poor priest of Kent, named John 
Ball, went about the country telling the people that 
no man ought to be richer than any other man, and 
that all men were born equal. . 

A rough rhyme was made up — 

" When Adam delved and Eve span, 
Who was then the gentleman ? " 

This was sung all over the country, and the rougher 
spirits among the poor began to grow eager to get 
hold of the property of the rich and divide it among 
themselves. They were ready to break out in open 
violence at any moment. 

Just at this dangerous time a new tax was put on 
the people. Every person over fifteen years of age 
was ordered to pay a certain sum toward the ex- 
penses of the French war. The poor raised loud 
and bitter complaints, but they did not at first refuse 
to pay, or rise in rebellion. 

One day, one of the men sent to inquire whether 
the tax had been paid behaved with shameful rude- 
ness in the house of a workman at Dartford, in 
Kent. The man was so enraged that he struck the 
tax-collector dead. 

His neighbors took his part, and soon a great 



WAT TYLER S REBELLION. 



I 4 I 



mob of rough men from Essex and Kent were on 
the march to London. On the way they broke into 




The Boy King Richard rides up to Tyler's Men. 

the houses of the gentry, and robbed and slew with- 
out mercy. 



I42 THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 

The king and his council were too much taken by 
surprise to put down the rising at once. They shut 
the gates of London, then a walled city, and asked 
what the rebels wanted. The rebels answered that, 
first of all, they desired that no man should be held 
as a serf upon the land of his lord. 

King Richard, then only a boy of fourteen, said 
that he would go out to the rebels, and try to quiet 
them. He met them at Smithfield, and began to 
talk to them ; but their leader, a man named Wat 
Tyler, behaved so roughly that the Lord Mayor, 
thinking that the king would be hurt, struck Tyler 
down with a dagger, and he was killed as he lay on 
the ground. 

The men of Kent, seeing their leader dead, bent 
their bows, and shouted that they would have re- 
venge. But the young king galloped boldly up to 
them, promised to grant them what they asked for, 
and cried, " I myself will be your leader ! " 

Trusting in his promise, the people went away to 
their homes. The king's council afterward would 
not allow the promise to be kept, and the rebels 
were punished with much cruelty. 

But from that time the laborers had more free- 
dom, for the lords saw that it was impossible to 
keep down the poor people as they had done before. 
It was not long before every serf had become a free 
man. 



THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 



143 



III. THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 

The life of Englishmen in the fourteenth century 
was very different from the life of the people to-day. 
There were, roughly, five classes in the country — 
the clergy, the nobles, the traders, the yeomen, and 
the villains. 

The traders grew in importance during this 
period. The eastern counties were the seat of a 
great trade in wool and fish. Fairs were held in 
towns in various parts of the country, at which 
merchants of all nations sold their wares. 

The yeomen were tenant-farmers, who in time of war 
served as bowmen 
and men-at-arms. 

The villains 
could not leave the 
lands on which they 
were born, but had 
to work there for 
their masters, and 
lived in miserable 
huts without win- 
dows or chimneys. 
Their food was 
good on the whole, 
though they suf- 
fered for want of 
vegetables, the only one commonly eaten being cab- 
bage. Meat, bread, butter, and cheese were cheap. 




Husbandman and Country Woman of 
Fifteenth Century. 



144 THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 

The laborers wore rough clothes of wool or 
leather; the traders wore cloth of good material, 
but plain. The nobles decked themselves out in 
splendid clothing. Their dress consisted of a long- 
sleeved vest, with a large and costly mantle, and 
feathered hat. Their shoes were very long, bent 
upward at the toes, and fastened to the knees with 
chains of gold and silver. 

Though the houses of the poor were so bad, men 
were skilful in building grand churches, and fine 
houses for the wealthy. Splendid castles and manor 
houses were built. A manor house consisted of 
a large hall, where the family and servants had their 
meals, where the ladies worked at their sewing 
and spinning, and where the servants slept at 
night, either on benches or on rushes placed on 
the floor. 

At one end of the hall were sleeping rooms for 
the family; at the other end were stables. Some 
houses had large kitchens, and an upper chamber, 
or " solar," built over the hall. 

There was as a rule no chimney ; the smoke found 
its way out through holes and gratings in the roof. 
Glass windows were seen nowhere but in palaces 
and churches. There was scarcely any furniture ; 
a table and a few seats, with a dresser for holding 
the plate, were almost the only things in use. 

People rose in the morning with the sun. They 
had dinner as early as nine o'clock, and were called 
to it by a blast of the horn. There were no forks 



THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 



145 



or plates. People used their fingers, and cut their 
meat or fish on chunks of bread. After dinner, water 
was brought for washing, and minstrels played or 
sang while the company drank their wine or beer. 
Tea and coffee were as yet unknown. 

Supper was eaten at five o'clock, and everybody 
went to bed at sunset, for candles were dear. Books 




Court Costumes, Time of Richard II. 

were few, and were written by hand. Few people 
could read, but they used to listen to the stories told 
or sung by wandering story-tellers, who went about 
the country calling at the houses of the rich, where 
they were sure of a welcome, and of food and a 
lodging in return for their stories. 

Life in England was hard for the poor, as it is 
everywhere, but they had a good deal of pleasure, 
too. Every saint's day was a holiday, and on these 



I46 THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 

days, as well as on Sundays, people danced and 
made merry on the village green. 

In the towns, the tradesmen joined together in 
guilds, each trade having one of its own. Every 
man who followed a trade had to belong to the 
trade guild, otherwise he perhaps would not have 
been allowed to work, or would have found it hard 
to make a living. These guilds were abolished in 
the reign of Henry VI 1 1., except in the city of Lon- 
don, where they remain to this day, though they 
have no longer the power they once had. 

We have seen that the Norman Conquest carried 
the French language into England. For many 
years the upper classes in England spoke French 
and understood no English, while the lower class 
kept their English and understood no French. But 
by the time of Edward III., English had overcome 
French, though many French words had crept into 
the language. From this time English was the 
language used in the courts of law and in the 
schools, and great books began to be written in 
English. 



THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
I. THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 

At Edward III.'s death the crown passed to his 
grandson, Richard II. Richard proved a weak, 
unwise, and unworthy king, and after a reign of 
twenty-two years, his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, 
took the crown from him, and became King Henry 
IV. It was during the reign of Bolingbroke's 
grandson, Henry VI., that the Wars of the Roses 
broke out. 

The sixth Henry was a gentle, weak-minded man, 
who was quite unfit to rule, and who never had any 
real power. He was completely in the hands of 
favorite lords, who were really the rulers of the 
country. 

Henry VI. was king when Joan of Arc drove the 
English from Orleans, and when England began to 
lose her hold on France. The loss of the lands in 
France, won in so long and fierce a contest, caused 
great anger among the English people, and the 
misrule of the king's favorite, the Duke of Suffolk, 
added to their wrath and discontent. 

At length the men of Kent rose in rebellion 
under a soldier named Jack Cade, demanding that 
the kingdom should be governed by the Duke of 

147 



148 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 

York. The duke was an able soldier and he bore a 
good character. He was also heir to the throne, for 
as yet Henry had no son. 

Cade's rebellion was put down, but Henry was 
forced to give the Duke of York a greater share in 
governing the country. When Henry soon after- 
ward suddenly went out of his mind, York was 
named by the lords protector of the kingdom. 

The king recovered his senses as suddenly as he 
had lost them, and York had to give up his position 
at the head of the kingdom. Henry at once brought 
back to power a former favorite, the Duke of Som- 
erset; and York, knowing that Somerset was his 
enemy, and would put him to death if he could, took 
up arms. 

A battle was fought at St. Albans, in which Som- 
erset was killed. This brought York again into 
power, and the king tried to make peace between 
the followers of York and those of Somerset. But 
war broke out again, and now York made a claim 
to the throne. He was the descendant of the third 
son of Edward III., while Henry was descended 
from the fourth son, the Earl of Lancaster. If 
Henry had died childless, York would have become 
king ; but the birth of a prince, who was named 
Edward, had destroyed York's chance of becoming 
king in peace. 

The lords would not allow his claim, but they 
arranged that at Henry's death the crown should 
pass to York and not to Prince Edward. This 



THE EARL OF WARWICK. 



149 



decision led to the great struggle between the 
houses of Lancaster and York, known as the Wars 
of the Roses. 

It is said that one day the leaders of the two 
parties in the struggle were walking in a garden. 




Abbey of St. Albans. 

As they spoke hard words to one another, one of 
them plucked a white rose, and the other a red one, 
and these roses became the badges of their parties. 
The red rose was the badge of Lancaster, the white 
rose that of York. 



II. THE EARL OF WARWICK. 

King Henry's wife was Margaret of Anjou, a 
French princess of great bravery and ability, but of 
a hard and cruel temper. Englishmen hated her, for 



I50 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 

she was no true friend to England. When the lords 
decided that York should succeed Henry, Margaret 
was furious, for she wished, as was quite natural, 
that her son Edward should be king after his father. 

She resolved to stand up for the rights of her 
son. She gathered together a great army from 
Scotland and the north of England, and a battle was 
fought at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, where the Duke 
of York was slain. Margaret had his head cut off, 
and set up on the walls of York, and upon the head 
was placed, in mockery, a crown of paper. 

But the death of the Duke of York did not end 
the war, for his son Edward, a handsome young man 
of nineteen, stepped at once into his father's place 
as head of the Yorkists. He was aided by a great 
nobleman, the Earl of Warwick, who was afterward 
known as the king-maker, for a reason that will be 
seen presently. 

Warwick was much beloved by Englishmen, 
being kindly in manner, a good master to his ser- 
vants, and a man who sought not so much his own 
greatness as the good of the realm. 

Edward of York, with Warwick, hastened to 
London, where the citizens received him joyfully, 
and where the lords offered him the crown of Eng- 
land. In another battle at St. Albans Warwick was 
defeated, and Henry, whom he had kept as a pris- 
oner, escaped to his own friends. But at Towton 
Queen Margaret's army was utterly defeated, and 
twenty thousand of her soldiers were slain. 



THE EARL OF WARWICK. 



151 



Not long afterwards Henry was captured and 
imprisoned in the Tower of London, and Edward 
of York was, by aid of Warwick, crowned king as 
Edward IV. But he soon deeply offended many of 
his friends, and among them Warwick, towards 
whom he acted with great deceit. 




Warwick Castle. 



The result was that Warwick after a time left 
Edward's party, and went over to the side of Henry. 
He even became friendly with Queen Margaret, who 
had before been his bitterest enemy. 

Warwick for a time had to remain out of the 
country, but he soon returned. He was so well 
received by the people that Edward, feeling unable 
to resist him, fled to Flanders, where his sister was 
the wife of the reigning duke. 

Then Warwick went to the Tower, whither he 
had himself taken King Henry as a prisoner five 
years before, and brought the poor king out. Old, 



152 



THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 




Warwick conducts Henry VI. from the Tower. 



THE END OF THE WAR. 1 53 

and worn, and dressed in very shabby clothes, Henry 
was led by the king-maker through the streets. 
Then Warwick had him dressed in robes fit for a 
king to wear, and restored him to the throne from 
which he had before removed him. 



III. THE END OF THE WAR. 

In the very next year Edward went back to Eng- 
land with an army, entered London in triumph, and 
took the king prisoner. Then he marched out to 
meet Warwick, taking Henry with him. 

At Barnet the armies of Lancaster and of York 
met once more. Warwick, now the leader for the 
Red Rose, was killed in the battle, and his army 
was defeated. In the same year another battle was 
fought at Tewkesbury, where the White Rose was 
again successful. After this battle Prince Edward, 
Henry's son, now eighteen years old, was brutally 
killed. King Henry was again placed in the Tower, 
where he was murdered by King Edward's order. 

Edward IV. reigned for the rest of his life in 
peace. At his death his son Edward, a boy twelve 
years of age, was crowned king, and Richard, Duke 
of Gloucester, was named protector, until the young 
king was old enough to rule. 

Gloucester was an able man, but his name is 
stained with deeds of blood which were thought 
horrible even in those cruel days. Pretending that 
he wished to keep his nephew, the young king, out 



154 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 

of harm's way, he placed him in the Tower of Lon- 
don, and soon gave him his younger brother as a 
companion. Before long the two boys were dead. 
No one knew how they died, but a story began to be 
whispered that their uncle had ordered their murder. 

Gloucester then made himself king as Richard 
III. He ruled for only two years. Then Henry, 
Earl of Richmond, the head of the House of Lan- 
caster, came to England from the foreign town in 
which he had been living, and fought Richard in the 
battle of Bosworth Field. Richard fought bravely 
and died a soldiers death. His crown, which he 
had worn in battle, was found in a holly bush and 
placed on the head of Richmond, who was hailed 
by the army as King Henry VII. 

Thus ended the Wars of the Roses, with triumph 
for the House of Lancaster. It was a struggle be- 
tween the great nobles. Trade, reaping, and sowing, 
went on almost as usual, while the lords and their 
followers were fighting out the quarrel among them- 
selves. Many of the lords were slain ; many more 
were ruined. The lands of traitors passed to the 
king, and thus many lords of both parties lost all 
their lands. 

As a result, Henry VII., and the sovereigns who 
ruled after him, had much wealth, and became more 
powerful than any king of England had yet been. 

There were now no great lords to check the 
power of the king. Some of the later kings used 
their power unwisely, and it needed another war, in 



THE END OF THE WAR. 



!55 




Reference Map for the Wars of the Roses. 

the reign of Charles L, to teach the lesson that the 
sovereign's duty is to seek the good of the nation, 
and not his own pleasure or gain. 



THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 
I. CAXTON AT BRUGES. 

During the autumn and winter of the year 1470, 
the town of Bruges in Flanders was a scene of un- 
usual bustle and gayety. It was always a busy place ; 
merchants flocked to its markets from every country 
in Europe ; and there Margaret, Duchess of Bur- 
gundy, kept her court. But now its streets were more 
gay and busy than ever, for Edward the Fourth, king 
of England, held his court there. The great war be- 
tween the houses of Lancaster and York was going 
on, and Edward, the head of the Yorkists, had been 
worsted, and had fled from England to avoid capture. 

It was natural for him to seek refuge in Bruges, 
for the Duchess of Burgundy, his sister, had be- 
come the wife of the great duke, known as Charles 
the Bold. Edward was therefore sure of a welcome 
at the duke's court, and he hoped to find there not 
only pleasant society, but also active help against 
his enemies at home. 

Among the higher servants of the Duchess Mar- 
garet was a certain William Caxton, an Englishman, 
who was born in the Weald of Kent, and who was 
at this time some forty-eight years of age. How 
Caxton came to enter the service of the duchess is 

156 



CAXTON AT BRUGES. 157 

not known. As a boy he was apprenticed to 
Robert Large, a London silk merchant who became 
Lord Mayor. At his master's death, he settled in 
Bruges as a wool merchant, became prosperous, and 
was made governor of all the English merchants in 
the town. In this important office he had to settle 
disputes between the traders, and to watch over the 
interests of English merchants generally. 

A year after the marriage of Margaret, however, 
Caxton gave up his governorship, and became a 
member of the duchess's household. 

What his duties were is uncertain, but he had so 
much leisure that he found himself in danger of 
becoming lazy. He tells us that to save himself 
from idleness, he took a French book to read, and 
therein he found many strange and marvellous 
stories, in which he had great pleasure and delight. 

Never having seen the book in English, he 
thought he would translate it into his own language. 
He began the work in March, 1469 ; before the year 
was out he had finished only fifty pages, then he 
grew weary and laid the book aside. 

The Duchess Margaret had seen Caxton's trans- 
lation, and was pleased with it ; the book was the 
famous story of Troy, the great city of the ancient 
world which was besieged by the Greeks for ten 
years before it fell. When her royal brother Edward 
came to Bruges with many of his nobles, they heard 
about Caxton's translation, and were eager to read 
it. The duchess therefore commanded him to finish 



158 



THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 



his work, and in the next year the whole book was 
translated into English. By that time Edward had 
gone back to England with an army, and had won the 
great battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury ; but there 
still remained several English noblemen at Marga- 
ret's court, who desired copies of Caxton's book. 




The Market Tower, Bruges (begun 1291, finished about 1390). 

Several copies were written out, and Caxton 
worked hard at copying with his own hand. Re- 
quests for more copies came in rapidly as the book 
became known ; and Caxton tells us that in writing 
the same his pen was worn out, his hand became 
weary and not steadfast, and his eyes were made 
dim by overmuch looking at the white paper. 



CAXTON BEGINS TO PRINT. 1 59 

II. CAXTON BEGINS TO PRINT. 

Wearisome as it was, there had been, until this 
time, no other way of copying books than by writ- 
ing them out. In the quiet of the monasteries, 
monks and their pupils spent long years in making 
copies of books, and there were also men who made 
copying a regular trade. Some of the copies thus 
written were beautiful works of art ; the writing was 
carefully done, capital letters were often painted in 
colors, and the margins were decorated with colored 
pictures and elegant designs. 

Such manuscript books were scarce, and very 
expensive. The Duke of Burgundy once gave 
$275 for a single book. As most people never even 
saw a book, there was no need for them to learn to 
read, and very few people wished to do so. 

A few years after Caxton's birth, people began to 
speak of a new and wonderful way of making books 
which had sprung up in Germany. It was so 
strange to them, and they so little understood it, 
that they actually thought those who practised it 
were the servants of the Evil One, or magicians at 
best. Men had at last learned the art of printing. 
For many years, small books and rough pictures 
had been printed from wooden blocks engraved in a 
simple and clumsy fashion. It was not till near the 
middle of the fifteenth century that men first began 
to print from movable types. 

At the time when Caxton had completed his 



i6o 



THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 



translation of the History of Troy, it chanced that 
one Colard Mansion, a skilful copyist, had just set 
up the first printing-press in Bruges. Here was 




Early Printers at Work. 



Caxton's opportunity for supplying copies of his 
book to all who wished for them. He paid Mansion 
to teach him the new art, and provided him with 



CAXTON BEGINS TO PRINT. l6l 

money to buy more types ; he also suggested im- 
provements in the form of the types. 

The two men worked together, and at length, about 
the year 1474, the first book ever printed in the Eng- 
lish language appeared ; it was Caxton's translation 
of the French History of Troy. It formed a large 
book of nearly eight hundred pages, and it must 
have taken a long time to print. Nowadays, when 

t***5<gmte %anmagape$c fat^Ueof fluent pat 
flGf ft/Qfe* ef$o$e*€tt^eafci#* kfymm* 

ittttf atfcl fSdtt fpg^t ftr *** Mil 

Thenne beganne agayne the bataylle of the one parte / And of the other 
Eneas ascryed to theym and sayd. Lordes why doo ye fiyghte / Ye knowe well 
that the couuenante ys deuysed and made / That Turnus and I shall fiyghte for 
you alle / 

Then began again the battle on the one part. And on the other, Aeneas cried to 
them and said : " Lords, why do ye fight? Ye know well that the covenant is devised 
and made, that Turnus and 1 shall fight for you all." 

Facsimile of Part of Caxton's Aeneid (reduced), with the same in 
Modern Type and in Modern Spelling. 

a book is set up in type, a printer can print many 
pages at once, and can make copies very rapidly by 
means of a press worked by steam. But at first 
every page was printed separately; the type was 
inked, and the paper was put on and taken off by 
hand. Slow as it was, printing effected an immense 
saving of time and labor; for when once the type 
was set, a hundred copies could be printed in the 
time taken to write one. 



1 62 THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 

The type that Caxton used was not at all like that 
used in printing this book. The letters were much 
larger, and in shape resembled those which are now 
called Old English. 

III. CAXTON IN ENGLAND. 

Caxton, as might be expected of one who had 
been governor of the English wool merchants in 
Bruges, was a good man of business. He saw that 
there would be a great demand for printed books, 
and that a good living might be earned by anybody 
who set up as a printer. So after printing with 
Mansion a book called The Game and Play of the 
Chess, he sailed for England with his types and 
presses in 1476. 

He took a house in Westminster, opposite the 
west door of the great abbey. The place was then 
called the Almonry, and as houses were known by 
signs, and not by numbers, Caxton took for his 
sign a pole painted red. His full address was there- 
fore " At Westminster, in the Almonry, at the Red 
Pole." When it became known that Caxton had set 
up a press at Westminster, he was soon sought out 
by the nobles who had met him at Bruges. One 
of those who went to see him working at his new 
trade was Earl Rivers, brother-in law of the king. 
The earl had translated a French book into Eng- 
lish, and this was the first work that Caxton printed 
in England. 



CAXTON IN ENGLAND. 



163 



It was called The Dictes and Sayings of the Phi- 
losophers, and appeared in the year 1477. For four- 
teen years, until his death in 1491, Caxton went on 
printing at Westminster, and during that time 
ninety-nine books were produced at the sign of the 




Facsimile of One of the Illustrations to Caxton's "Game and Play 

of the Chess." 

Red Pole : stories and poems, fables, service-books 
and sermons. 

Other printers followed Caxton's example, and 
books soon became numerous and much cheaper. 
Many people now began to learn to read, who 
would never have thought of doing so ; and the 
new invention was the means of bringing knowl- 
edge and happiness to thousands. 



164 THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 

Caxton, besides being a printer, was a translator; 
twenty of the books that he printed were transla- 
tions — some of them by himself. He thus did 
double service for the English people. 

Before books were printed, people in different 
parts of the country spoke so differently that it was 
almost as if there were no one English language, 
but each district had a language of its own. The 
people of one county could hardly make themselves 
understood by the people of another. When we 
remember that, even now, a Yorkshire peasant can 
scarcely understand a man of Devon, we can im- 
agine how much worse the case was in those days 
when books were few and travelling was difficult. 

Caxton tells us a curious story which illustrates 
this. Some merchants, sailing down the Thames 
in order to cross the sea to Holland, were delayed 
by lack of wind, and went on shore at the North 
Foreland to refresh themselves. One of them 
went into a house, and asked for eggs ; but the 
woman of the house, not understanding him, an- 
swered that she could not speak French. " Neither 
can I speak French," said the man ; " I want some 
eggs." The woman was still puzzled to know what 
he meant by eggs, until one of his companions said 
that he wanted some eyren, and then the woman 
knew, and brought the eggs. For in that part of 
the country eggs were called eyren. 

Spelling, too, was very uncertain. Even educated 
people spelled words very much as they pleased, 



CAXTON IN ENGLAND. 1 65 

according to the way in which they thought the 
sounds should be represented by letters. Thus 
such a common word as baby was spelled also babi\ 
babee, babie, babby ; and candle appears in the forms 
condle, candel, candil, candell, and caitdelle. 

When Caxton began to translate, he was per- 
plexed as to the kind of English he should use. If 
he employed the rough and homely language of his 
native village, he would offend the refined tastes of 
the nobles. On the other hand, he could not use 
the more elegant language spoken by the nobles, 
such as those whom he met at Bruges ; for the great 
mass of his countrymen were not well educated, and 
they would then have found his books too hard to 
read. 

What Caxton did was to make a selection from 
both kinds of English ; thus his translations were 
neither too rough in style for the nobles, nor too 
learned for ordinary people. When he began to 
print, he thought it well to spell each word upon one 
plan throughout his books. And so when printed 
books grew common, men of all classes and in all 
parts of the country read the same words and 
learned to spell them in the same way, and the 
English language became one tongue. 

Since that time, many new words have come into 
the language, and spelling has been somewhat 
altered, and made much more definite. But the 
English of to-day is very much what it was as 
printed by Caxton in his ninety-nine books. 



THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
I. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

About fifty years after the art of printing was 
invented, another great event happened which had 
an important effect on the future history of the 
English nation. This was the discovery of Amer- 
ica. 

At that time most people believed that the earth 
was a great plain, with water all round it, but 
learned men were teaching that the earth is a 
globe. Men had travelled overland into different 
parts of the known world, and had brought back 
wonderful tales of the wealth and beauty of far-off 
countries. They had gone as far as India, and even 
China, and it was thought that beyond India, as 
Eastern Asia was called, there was no more land 
on the globe. The greater part of Africa was 
entirely unknown. 

Some of the seamen in the west of Europe 
believed that if they sailed westward across the 
Atlantic, they would at last come to the eastern 
shores of India. Unknown plants had been picked 
up at sea, and also pieces of wood marked with 
strange figures, and it was supposed that India 
was the only country from which such things could 
have come. 

1 66 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 167 

One of the men who were filled with curiosity to 
know more about what was beyond the sea, was 
Christopher Columbus. He was born in 1436 at 
Genoa, then a thriving seaport, where his father 
was a wool-comber. When the time came for him 
to choose a trade, the boy declared that he longed 
to be a sailor. So he spent a rough seafaring life 
until 1470, when he was wrecked on the coast of 
Portugal after a sea-fight. He escaped on a plank, 
and reached his brother's house at Lisbon. There 
he married the daughter of an old navigator, and he 
settled down in Portugal as a maker of maps and 
charts. 

Now Columbus had learned something of astron- 
omy as well as of navigation ; he had made many 
voyages round the western coasts of Europe ; he 
had talked with travellers and seamen, and had 
read many books of travel. What he had heard 
and read made him feel sure that there was land 
on the other side of the ocean, and he was filled 
with a longing to discover it. But he was not 
rich, and could not afford to buy ships and pay 
crews to sail them. So he went to the king of 
Portugal, and declared that if he were provided 
with ships and men, he would find the eastern 
shores of India, and thus open up a way by which 
the wealth of the east could be obtained, without 
the cost and danger of journeys by land. 

But his ideas were thought absurd, and he did 
not obtain the help he wanted. Nothing daunted, 



1 68 THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

he tried elsewhere. He sent letters to Henry the 
Seventh of England, asking for his assistance; but 
the letters never reached him. He then applied to 
a powerful duke in Spain, who sent him to the good 
Queen Isabella of Castile. She received him with 
favor, but her counsellors advised her not to give 
money to him. 

Disappointed but not discouraged, Columbus tried 
again and again to get what he wanted ; and at 
length, after seven weary years, the queen agreed 
to fit out an expedition at her own expense. 
Columbus was made an admiral, and was promised 
a reward if he were successful in discovering any 
new lands. Every boy and girl who reads this book 
knows the story of the voyages, the discoveries, and 
the life and sorrowful end of Christopher Columbus. 



II. RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERY. 

The example of Columbus stirred other seamen 
to undertake daring voyages of discovery. There 
was living at Bristol a Venetian merchant named 
John Cabot, who had spent a long life in trading with 
distant countries. He had sailed not only to the 
countries in the south of Europe and along the 
shores of the Great Sea, but had ventured as far as 
Iceland. There he heard stories of a land far across 
the western ocean, which the great-grandfathers of 
the men of Iceland were said to have visited many 



RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERY. 1 69 

years before. Longing to see this land, and hearing 
of the successful voyage of Columbus, Cabot applied 
to King Henry the Seventh for help, just as Colum- 
bus had applied to the king of Portugal. 

Henry was fond of money, and he thought that 
if there really were a rich land over the sea, he might 
get part of its wealth for himself. So he fitted out 
some ships, and allowed Cabot and his sons to set 
out on their voyage of discovery; he also made them 
promise to go back to Bristol, and to give him a 
part of whatever they brought with them. 

Cabot sailed away to the northwest early in the 
year 1497, an d after a long and dangerous voyage, 
reached the shores of the land now called Labrador. 
Thus Cabot was the first man from the old world 
that we know for certain landed on the mainland of 
America. He continued his voyage, and after dis- 
covering a land which he called Newfoundland, he 
returned to Engand. His son Sebastian explored 
the coast as far south as the Carolinas. These dis- 
coveries and that of Hudson in Hudson's bay, were 
the bases of England's claim to the western continent. 

A little thought will show how important the dis- 
covery of America was. Men had learned for the 
first time of the existence of an immense continent, 
very thinly peopled, rich in gold and minerals, and in 
everything necessary to support life and make it 
pleasant. It was a land open to all comers, and so 
large that there was room for everybody. Men who 
found life hard and dull at home in Europe could 



I70 THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

find in the new land plenty to interest them and 
to employ their best powers. 

The Spaniards soon made settlements in America, 
and for years they drew from them such vast treas- 
ures, that Spain became the richest and most power- 
ful country in Europe. But Englishmen were never 
slow to push out in search of adventure and novelty. 
They did not intend to let Spain have all the benefits 
of the discovery. The English sea-dogs, as they 
liked to be called, delighted to meet the ships of 
Spain upon the seas, and win from them, in fair 
fight, the spoils they were bringing home. 

Many a voyage was made by the bold English 
seamen to the western world, and many an English 
ship went back to the old country laden with the 
wealth from over the sea. But it was a hundred 
years before Englishmen made a serious attempt to 
settle in North America. Then their settlements 
grew and flourished, and while Spain sank to a 
position of little importance in the world, England 
rose to the foremost place. It was the English in 
the new world who laid the foundations of our own 
vast and mighty republic. 



THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
I. KING HAL AND THE FRENCH WAR. 

When King Henry the Seventh died in 1509, the 
whole English nation was delighted that his suc- 
cessor was the handsome young Prince "Hal. Henry 
was a tall, strong, handsome youth, quick at out- 
door sports and exercises, frank and hearty in 
manner, and ready to crack a joke with any one. 
" Bluff King Hal " he was called by the people. 

He was a good scholar, too, fond of books and 
music. He wrote and spoke in four languages, and 
knew something of medicine, engineering, and ship- 
building. He was especially learned in the views of 
wise men about religion and church matters. 

On becoming king, he at once pleased the people 
by spending much of his fathers gathered wealth in 
sports and shows. He got leave from the Pope to 
marry Katharine, the Spanish princess who had 
been the wife of his brother Arthur. He made 
Katharine his queen chiefly because he wished to 
keep friendly with the important kingdom of Spain. 
Henry was eager to make a name for himself, and 
to show Europe what an important man the king of 
England was, and he soon began to meddle with 
foreign affairs. 

171 



172 



THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 



At that time Germany, France, and Spain were 
striving for the mastery of Italy, and the Pope, who 
was a great prince as well as head of the church, 
was at the mercy of the rivals. Among them all 
he was likely to lose much of his power. So he 




King Henry the Eighth. 

made a league with the Emperor of Germany and 
others, with the object of driving one of his enemies, 
the French, out of Italy. 

Henry was persuaded to join this league, and he 
agreed to make an attack upon France. Four 
years after his accession, he landed with an army 
of twenty-five thousand men at Calais, which had 
belonged to England since its capture by Edward 
the Third a hundred and sixty years before. 



KING HAL AND THE FRENCH WAR. 1 73 

The German emperor met Henry at the head of 
his troops, and though he was an older man and had 
fought many battles, he offered to serve as a volun- 
teer under the young English king. This he did 
because he wished to gain Henry for his friend, to 
suit his own purposes, and he thought that he would 
get Henry's support by flattering him. 

The two armies laid siege to a small town named 
Terouenne, which they kept shut up for six weeks. 
Several attempts were made by the French to supply 
the townspeople with food, and at last a body of 
horsemen approached the town with orders to play 
a trick on the besiegers. They were to pretend 
to retreat, and so draw the enemy after them, 
while other soldiers carried food into the town. So 
the French horsemen, when they came in sight of 
the besieging army, began to retire. Henry and the 
emperor at once led their forces out against them, 
and then the French, struck with sudden terror, 
turned their sham retreat into a real and disorderly 
flight. 

The English cavalry poured after them in rapid 
pursuit, and captured many prisoners. Not a man 
was killed ; and when Henry jestingly praised the 
French for the excellent speed of their horses, one 
of the prisoners smiled and answered, " In truth, 
sir, it was a battle of spurs." And as the Battle of 
Spurs it is known in history to this day. 

All plans to relieve the towns having failed, 
Henry captured Terouenne and another fortress 



174 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 

named Tournai. But peace was soon made ; for 
Henry discovered that his allies thought of no one 
but themselves. He knew he was not strong 
enough to conquer France alone, and all his money 
was gone. He had nothing to gain by fighting any 
longer. 

II. FLODDEN FIELD. 

While Henry was in France, there was trouble 
in England. Scotland was at that time a separate 
kingdom, and its king, James the Fourth, had mar- 
ried Margaret, Henry's sister. He took advantage 
of the absence of the English king to seek revenge 
for the injuries he had suffered at the hands of the 
English. He complained of several wrongs done 
to him. To begin with, when he married the Eng- 
lish princess, her father had promised that at his 
death she should have a large number of valuable 
jewels. These her brother Henry had not yet sent, 
and he showed no signs of sending them. 

Again, the men who lived on either side of the 
Border were constantly robbing and slaying one 
another. James complained that if the offenders 
were Englishmen, the English officials would not 
give them up to justice ; but if they were Scots- 
men, the English seized them in their own country, 
and carried them into prison in England. 

For these and other causes James resolved to 
make war. He got a great army together, com- 
posed of all classes, trained and untrained, and 



FLODDEN FIELD. 175 

marched across the Border. The Scots captured 
a few castles, but their march was delayed by 
James, who, though brave, often gave way to idle- 
ness and the pursuit of pleasure. 

This delay gave time for the English com- 
mander, the Earl of Surrey, to bring up a large 
force of tried soldiers. James took up a strong 
position on the hill of Flodden in Northumberland, 
but foolishly allowed the English to get round to 
the rear, where he was more open to attack. Thus 
the English army lay between the Scots and their 
own country, and the Scots owed their bad position 
to the imprudence of their brave but foolhardy 
king. 

The battle began on the afternoon of September 
9, 15 1 3. James, against the advice of his nobles, 
commanded the centre of his army in person. At 
the first furious onset, the right wing of the Eng- 
lish army was thrown into disorder, and Sir 
Edmund Howard, the English commander, nar- 
rowly escaped being killed. But while the Scots 
were plundering as though the battle were won, the 
English cavalry under Lord Dacre, charged the 
Scots, and completely routed them. 

Meanwhile, on the left, the English archers, 
under Sir Edward Stanley, had poured deadly 
showers of arrows into the ranks of the Scottish 
right wing, which consisted of Highlanders, who 
had little armor. Eager to escape the fatal 
arrows, and to fight at close quarters, the Scots 



176 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 

rushed on, whirling their axes and two-handed 
swords. The English gave way for a moment, but 
quickly recovered and stood shoulder to shoulder, 
presenting a wall of lances and bills. 1 The Scots 
had spent all their strength in the first attack, and 
in spite of their desperate valor they were driven 
back in hopeless ruin. 

In the centre James was fighting valiantly among 
his spearmen, and the English could at first make 
no impression upon the enemy's ranks. But at 
last Stanley came up from his victory on the left, 
and Lord Thomas Howard from the right, and the 
Scots were beset on three sides at once. Still they 
kept up the fight till James fell, pierced by count- 
less wounds. His nobles fought and died round 
his body, but darkness came on and put an end to 
the battle. The slaughter had been great on both 
sides, and the loss of their king had so broken the 
spirit of the Scots that the survivors sadly retired 
from the field, leaving the victory with the English. 

So was the battle of Flodden lost and won — a 
battle bravely fought on both sides. The blood- 
stained plaid, taken from the body of the hapless 
King James, was sent to Queen Katharine of Eng- 
land. She had promised Henry to guard the king- 
dom carefully while he was away, and she had 
encouraged the English officers when they set out 
for the north. Now she proudly sent to her hus- 

1 The bills were broad hook-shaped blades, fastened on the end of a 
long stout staff — on the backs of the blade there were sharp spikes. 



THOMAS WOLSEY. I 77 

band the trophy of victory. " In this," she wrote to 
him, " your grace shall see how I keep my promise, 
sending you for your banner a king's coat." 



III. THOMAS WOLSEY. 

For a number of years the greatest man in Eng- 
land, after the king, was Thomas Wolsey, the 
king's friend and adviser. . Wolsey was a proud 
and ambitious man, and during his life of fifty-nine 
years he made many enemies. They were jealous 
of him, and tried to put a slight upon him by say- 
ing that he was the son of a butcher. But his 
father was really a grazier and wool merchant at 
Ipswich, where Thomas was born in the year 147 1. 
He was a very bright boy. By the time that he 
was fifteen years old, he had taken the Bachelor's 
degree at Magdalen College, Oxford. By and by 
he became master of Magdalen College School, and 
then he went as rector to a little Somerset village. 

But he soon left the quiet of the country, and 
became one of King Henry the Seventh's chap- 
lains, and assisted Henry's ministers in the business 
of the country. He was rewarded for his work by 
being made Dean of Lincoln ; for in those days 
orifices in the church were given to men chiefly as 
rewards for helping the king. 

When Henry the Eighth became king, he made 
Wolsey his chief minister. He gave him the bish- 
opric of Lincoln, and a few months later made him 



178 



THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 



Archbishop of York. In the next year he was 
made a cardinal by the Pope, and soon he became 
not only the Pope's legate, 1 but also chancellor of 
He now lived in great splendor. He 



England. 



kept an enormous household, and earned the bitter 




m-^n w 



wm. 

Cardinal Wolsey. 



enmity of the nobles by the display of his wealth, 
and by the favors he enjoyed from the king. 

Wolsey had two great ambitions — one for him- 
self, the other for his country. For himself, he 
wished to be Pope ; for England, he wished to make 
her the foremost country in Europe. 

At this time the greatest sovereigns in Europe 

1 The person who acted for the Pope at the English court. 



THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD. I 79 

— the German Emperor Charles, and Francis the 
French king — were each striving to gain more 
power than the other. They were both anxious to 
get the support of Henry, for the great victory at 
Flodden had shown them how useful an English 
army might be to them. Wolsey wished Henry to 
be friendly with both Charles and Francis, but not 
to take sides with either of them in their struggles. 
He thought that, instead of helping them, Henry 
might be able to use them to increase his own 
power and importance in Europe. 

Now it had been agreed that Henry and Francis 
should meet near Calais, and spend some time 
together in a friendly way. Wolsey did not wish 
Henry to become a firm ally of Francis, so he wrote 
to Charles, suggesting that he too should have a 
meeting with Henry. This the emperor agreed to, 
and he went across to England and met Henry, 
only a few days before the English king set out for 
France. On the last day of May Henry set sail 
from Dover, and made for Calais. 



IV. THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD. 

Wolsey was fond of fine dress and grand display, 
and in making the arrangements for the meeting of 
the kings he did his utmost to make it as splendid 
as possible. Hundreds of English workmen were 
sent to Calais to prepare for the reception of the 
king and his court — bricklayers and carpenters, 



i8o 



THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 




The Meeting of the Kings on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. 

masons and decorators, gold workers and armorers. 
Wolsey himself chose the nobles who were to accom- 



THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD. l8l 

pany the king, and vast sums were spent in prepar- 
ing themselves and their servants for the journey. 
One writer says that " many lords bore thither to 
the meeting their mills, their forests, and their mead- 
ows on their backs," meaning that they had sold 
their property in order to pay for their fine clothes. 

The king took with him to France more than five 
thousand persons, and nearly three thousand horses. 
Not one of his court was more splendid than the 
great cardinal, whose personal followers numbered 
eight hundred men. The place of meeting was a 
meadow near Calais. Tents and huts had been 
erected around the town, and the camp was bright 
with flags and splendid decorations. Equal labor 
and money had been spent on the French side, and 
the splendor was such that the meeting place was 
called the Field of the Cloth of Gold. 

There the two kings met, dressed in all their 
finery and jewels. Weeks were spent in feasts and 
tournaments among the nobles, and all kinds of 
frolics among the men-at-arms. Henry and Francis 
gave each other costly presents, and talked long 
together about matters of state. They professed 
to love each other sincerely, and no doubt many 
promises were made on both sides. But the whole 
meeting was only a splendid sham. Each king was 
thinking only of his own interests ; and a few weeks 
after they had parted, Henry met the Emperor 
Charles, the French king's bitter enemy. Charles 
and Henry made a secret treaty, in which Henry 



1 82 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 

made the same promises that he had just made to 
Francis. The result was that Henry was trusted 
by neither. 

But the object of Wolsey was partly attained. 
Charles and Francis both saw that it would be well 
for them to keep on good terms with England, and 
both were anxious not to offend Henry. 



V. THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 

For seven years after the meeting of the kings, 
Wolsey continued to be the trusted servant of 
King Henry, and worked hard for the good of his 
country. He served Henry faithfully and unself- 
ishly, and took on himself the blame and dislike 
which some of the king's acts incurred. 

Henry, as he grew older, became selfish and cruel, 
and when Wolsey at last failed to carry out his 
wishes, he treated the great man with base in- 
gratitude. The story of Wolsey's fall is a sad one. 

Henry had fallen in love with a lady of the court 
named Anne Boleyn, who wished the king to marry 
her and make her queen. Anne was young and 
pretty and gay, and the king wanted to get rid of 
his quiet, serious Queen Katharine. So he began 
to pretend that he had done wrong in marrying his 
brother's widow. He wanted the Pope to say that 
the marriage had been wrong, and to allow him 
to put away Katharine and marry Anne ; and he 
expected Wolsey to arrange the matter. 



THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 



183 



But the Pope saw that Henry's wishes were 
wrong ; and even if they had been right, it would 
have been impossible for him to enable Henry to 
attain them. He was a prisoner, for Rome was 
in the hands of the troops of the Emperor Charles. 
Katharine was the aunt of Charles, and the Pope 
dared not offend him. 




Queen Katharine refuses to give Way to the Cardinals. 

All that he would do was to send an Italian 
cardinal to England to join Wolsey in hearing both 
sides of the matter, but he did not intend that they 
should decide the question. The two cardinals at 
first tried to induce Henry to change his mind. 
When they found this impossible, they tried to 
persuade the queen to agree to leave her husband ; 
but she would not do so, knowing that she had 
right on her side. 



184 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 

When the cardinals at last began to hear the 
case in court, the Italian did his utmost to delay 
coming to a decision. Henry blamed Wolsey for 
the delay, and began to show his anger against 
him, though Wolsey was really doing his best for 
his master. A month passed, and when Henry 
came into court expecting judgment to be declared, 
the Italian cardinal rose and put off the matter for 
two months. The king was terribly angry, and so 
were his nobles. The Duke of Suffolk slapped a 
table and cried, " It was never merry in England 
whilst we had cardinals among us." 

Wolsey turned upon him with scorn, for he had 
befriended the duke in many ways. " Sir," he said, 
" of all men within this realm you have least cause 
to dispraise or be offended at cardinals ; for if I, a 
simple cardinal, had not been, you should have had 
at this present no head upon your shoulders." 

Though Wolsey spoke so boldly in the presence 
of the king, he knew that he was a ruined man. 
Now that the king was displeased with him, his 
many enemies began to work for their revenge. 
He was accused of acting as legate of the Pope 
in England, contrary to a law passed in the reign 
of Edward the Third. Wolsey had no defence ; for 
though he had done this at the wish of the king, 
yet, when the king ceased to support him, he could 
say nothing for himself. 

He was ordered to give up the great seal which 
he held as chancellor, and to retire to his house at 



THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 1 85 

Esher. On the way he received the present of a 
ring from Henry, which gave him hope of winning 
back the king's favor. He had wished to send a 
gift to the king in return, but he was now so poor 
that he had nothing worthy of his sovereign's 
acceptance. 

Among his servants, however, was a jester, who 
was so clever that Wolsey said he was worth a 
thousand pounds. The cardinal thought of send- 
ing him to the king. But " the poor fool took on 
so, and fired so in such a rage when he saw that 
he must needs depart from my lord," that six tall 
yeomen had to be sent with him to get him safely to 
the king's palace. 

VI. LAST DAYS OF WOLSEY. 

At Christmas, Wolsey 's troubles made him ill, 
and Henry sent his own doctor to him. " I would 
not lose him for twenty thousand pounds," he said. 

" Then," replied the doctor, " your Grace must 
send him some comfortable message as soon as 
is possible." Henry took a favorite ring from his 
ringer and gave it to the doctor, saying, " Tell him 
that I am not offended with him in my heart 
nothing at all, and that shall he perceive, and God 
send him life very shortly." 

On Wolsey's recovery, the king gave him full 
pardon, but his enemies were so powerful that he 
had to give up all his offices except the archbish- 



1 86 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 

opric of York. By and by he left Esher and set 
out for the north. 

A writer of that time says: " Who was less be- 
loved in the north than my lord cardinal before he 
was amongst them ? Who better beloved after he 
had been there a while ? He gave bishops a right 
good example how they might win men's hearts. 
There were few holy days but he would ride five 
or six miles from his house, now to this parish 
church, now to that, and there cause one or other 
of his doctors to make a sermon unto the people. 
He inquired whether there were any debate or 
grudge between any of his visitors. If there were, 
after dinner he sent for the parties to the church, 
and made them all one." 

Meanwhile his enemies were still trying to ruin 
him. It was discovered that he wrote letters to 
servants of the French king and of the Emperor 
Charles, and Henry ordered him to be brought to 
London to be tried for treason. W T olsey was sit- 
ting quietly in his room when the Earl of North- 
umberland entered. He welcomed his visitor with 
a smile ; but the earl, trembling, laid his hand upon 
his arm, and said to him, with a very faint and soft 
voice, " My lord, I arrest you of high treason." 

Wolsey was speechless with astonishment. This 
fresh act of injustice broke his bold spirit, and when 
he set out for London he looked a worn-out old man. 
His servants wept at parting from him ; a crowd of 
country people met him at the gate and cried, " God 



LAST DAYS OF WOLSEY. 1 87 

save your grace. The foul evil take all them that 
have thus taken you from us ; we pray God that a 
very vengeance may light on them." 

He reached Leicester Abbey so weak and ill that 
he had to be carried into it from his mule. " Father 
Abbot," he said, " I am come hither to leave my 
bones among you." For two days he lay there dy- 
ing; then, on November 27, 1530, the great man 
passed away. In his last hours he sadly regretted 
that he had given so much time to state matters, 
and so little to his duty as a clergyman. " If I had 
served God so diligently as I have done the king," 
he said, " he would not have given me over in my 
gray hairs." 

Wolsey was one of England's great statesmen, 
though the value of what he did and would have 
done for his country was for a long time not under- 
stood. Eager as he was for his own greatness, he 
was still more eager to make England great. Fond 
as he was of display, it must be remembered that he 
spent much of his wealth for his country's good. 

He began to endow and build two colleges, one 
at Ipswich, his native town, and the other at Ox- 
ford ; this latter he meant to be a magnificent me- 
morial of himself under the name Cardinal College. 
He lived to see only the hall of his Oxford college 
built ; but the king finished his work, and the col- 
lege, under the name of Christ Church, remains as 
a reminder of the great cardinal who served his 
king too well. 



THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
I. THE KING AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 

The quarrel between Henry and the Pope over 
the marriage question had very important results. 
After Wolsey's death, the king again tried to get 
leave from the Pope to put away Queen Katharine 
and marry Anne Boleyn. As the Pope still re- 
fused, the quarrel became very bitter. 

A Cambridge lecturer named Thomas Cranmer, 
in talking with the king's secretary, had suggested 
that if the Pope would not give way, Henry might 
ask the opinion of the learned men of Europe as to 
whether his first marriage was lawful. Henry was 
much pleased with the notion, and at once began 
to show favor to Cranmer. 

Letters were sent to the heads of all the universi- 
ties in Europe, asking them to consider the question 
with care, and to let the king of England know their 
decision. Unhappily, Henry was more anxious to 
get a favorable opinion than an honest one, and im- 
mense sums of money were spent in bribing the 
learned men. After all, only half of them decided 
that Henry had done wrong in marrying his brother's 
widow, and thus he was again bitterly disappointed. 

But now a bold proposal was made by a man 
who, for nearly ten years, wielded immense power 



THE KING AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 



189 



in England. This man was Thomas Cromwell, the 
son of a blacksmith at Putney. When a youth, he 
left England because of some disgraceful conduct, 
and served as a common soldier in the French army 
in Italy. Then he became a clerk at Antwerp, and 
by and by returned to England, married, and en- 
gaged in business. He was a cloth merchant, a 




Thomas Cranmer. 



lawyer, and a money-lender, and by dint of hard 
work he became a man of wealth and importance. 

Wolsey noticed the young man's ability, took him 
into his service, and had him elected a member of 
Parliament. When the cardinal was making plans for 
the building of his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich, 
he found Cromwell useful in getting the necessary 
money together. Cromwell served his master faith- 



190 



THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



fully ; and when the great cardinal had lost the favor 
of the king, and his enemies were seeking to ruin 
him, Cromwell took his part manfully, and did what 
he could to defend him. After Wolsey's death he 
entered the king's service, and in a few years he be- 
came his trusted adviser, and rose to a position as 
great as the cardinal's had been. 




Thomas Cromwell. 

His proposal with regard to the king's marriage 
was, that Henry should declare that the power of 
the Pope was at an end in England, and that the 
king had the right to do whatever he wished, — in 
church matters as well as in matters of state. In 
other words, Henry was to declare himself to be the 
head of the Church in England. Thus he would 
be able to do as he pleased without asking the 
Pope. 



THE RUIN OF THE MONASTERIES. 191 

Now, when it is remembered that the Pope was 
admitted to be the head of the Church in every 
Christian country, it will be seen how daring Crom- 
well's proposal was. But Henry would shrink from 
nothing in order to get his own way. The English 
clergy were ordered to acknowledge the king as the 
" only supreme head of the Church and Clergy of 
England." They were very unwilling to do so, but 
they knew that Henry would allow nothing to stand 
in his way, and they were afraid to refuse. 

Cranmer was now made Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and he at once held a court to decide the 
great marriage question. In a short time Henry's 
first marriage was declared unlawful, and a week 
after, the king's new wife, Anne Boleyn, was crowned 
queen by the archbishop. 



II. THE RUIN OF THE MONASTERIES. 

Henry had now defied the authority of the Pope ; 
and acting on the advice of Cromwell, he proceeded 
still further in his course. The king took into his 
own hands the appointment of bishops, which had 
formerly belonged to the Pope, and Cromwell com- 
pelled the clergy to preach sermons against the 
Pope, and in favor of Henry as head of the Church 
in England. The Pope replied by excommunicat- 
ing Henry, declaring him to be no longer king of 
England, and giving permission to anybody who 
pleased to take the crown from him. 



192 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 

An Act of Parliament was now passed which re- 
quired people to declare that Henry had done right, 
according to the law of the Church, in sending away 
his wife Katharine and marrying Anne. There 
were many men who nobly refused to make such 
a declaration. Numbers of such men were cruelly 
put to death for their refusal. 

Then Cromwell advised the king to set about 
another measure which made both Henry and his 
adviser hated throughout the land. Spread over 
the country there were some six hundred monas- 
teries, that is, places where men or women lived 
apart from other people, because they had promised 
to devote their lives to study and prayer and good 
works. When these monasteries were founded, 
people thought that the only way to live a really 
good life was to become a monk or a nun, and 
keep away from temptation and the pleasures of the 
world. 

But the monks and nuns who lived in these 
monasteries did not spend the whole of their time 
in prayer and study. They often worked hard 
in many ways, and led useful lives. They kept 
schools ; they cultivated land and cleared forests ; 
they drained pestilent marshes, and looked after 
the poor and the sick. They built splendid churches 
and copied books, and wrote records of the history 
of the country. Their houses were open to every 
traveller, and many a weary horseman and foot- 
sore wanderer found rest and refreshment there. 



THE RUIN OF THE MONASTERIES. 



193 



But there are bad men everywhere, and some of 
the monks did not keep their vow to live sober and 
godly lives. They were sometimes more eager to 
be rich than to be good. Cromwell made the 
wrong-doing of some the excuse for acts of injustice 
against all. 




Ruins of Fountains Abbey, one of the Religious Houses suppressed 

by Henry VIII. 

The king was extravagant and always in want of 
money, but he was always reluctant to ask Parlia- 
ment to levy taxes for him. He was anxious not to 
seem to oppress the nation. So when Cromwell 
proposed to shut up some of the monasteries and 



194 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 

take their property, Henry was delighted. He al- 
lowed Cromwell to take away their lands and treas- 
ures, and to turn the inmates out to find other 
homes. The wealth which Cromwell thus got he 
gave to the king, who gave some of it back to 
Cromwell as a reward, and some to lords of his 
court. 

Whatever the truth about the monasteries may 
be, Henry in dealing with them acted as a tyrant, 
and his tyranny went even further. An English 
cardinal, named Reginald Pole, had written a book 
against Henry's claim to be the head of the Church. 
Because of this, Pole's elder brother, Lord Montagu, 
and another relative, the Marquis of Exeter, were 
beheaded, and even Pole's aged mother, the Coun- 
tess of Salisbury, met the same fate. 



III. THE NEW RELIGIOUS FAITH. 

Side by side with this movement against the Pope 
and the wealth of the Church, there was going on a 
more quiet change of religious belief. For sev- 
eral years learned men had been preaching against 
some of the things which were commonly taught. 
In Germany a man named Martin Luther was the 
foremost among these Reformers, as they were 
called. The people who held the new beliefs were 
called Protestants, while those who held the old 
beliefs were still known as Catholics. 

In our days people think that what a man 



THE NEW RELIGIOUS FAITH. 1 95 

believes is a matter for his own conscience ; in 
those days they thought that a man who believed 
differently from themselves should be made to 
change his belief. For many years, both Catholics 
and Protestants, when they had the power, treated 
each other very cruelly. 

One of the points on which the Protestants dif- 
fered from the Catholics was as to the Bible. 
Most of the Catholics thought that people should 
not read the Bible for themselves, but should only 
have it read and explained to them by clergymen. 
But the Protestants thought that every man should 
read the Bible for himself, and they wished it to be 
translated out of the languages in which it was 
written, into the language of the common people. 
Some of the Catholics thought so too. One of 
them, a wise Dutch scholar named Erasmus, was 
anxious that the Bible should be translated into 
every known language. " I long," he said, " for 
the day when the husbandman shall sing portions 
of the gospels to himself as he follows the plough, 
when the weaver shall hum them to the time of 
his shuttle, when the traveller shall while away 
with their stories the weariness of his journey." 

Now, when the teaching of Luther and others 
reached England, Henry was at first very much 
against it. He even wrote a book against Luther, 
which he sent to the Pope, and for which the Pope 
rewarded him with the title of Defender of the 
Faith. But by and by, when Henry himself had 



I96 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 

had his great quarrel with the Pope, it was natural 
that he should think a little less hardly of those 
who disagreed with the Pope on matters of belief. 
The Protestants in England were slowly growing 
in numbers, and already included a few of the 
chief clergy. 

When Henry declared himself head of the 
Church, he began to think that he could order peo- 
ple to believe just what he pleased. So he made 
some changes in the articles of religion, that is, 
the written statement of the Church's beliefs, and 
the changes that he made were such as some of the 
Catholics themselves agreed with. Henry himself 
was never a Protestant ; and when the Protestants 
tried to make their beliefs the established religion 
of the country, he was angry. He got Parliament 
to pass what was called the Act of Six Articles, 
w T hich were six things that Henry said everybody 
ought to believe. The Act inflicted severe punish- 
ments on those who said anything against the six 
articles. 



IV. RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS. 

Henry, by Cromwell's advice, ordered a transla- 
tion of the Bible to be made in English, and a copy 
to be placed in every church. There had been Eng- 
lish translations before, but they had not been in 
the hands of people generally, and had only been 
read secretly and in fear. 



RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS. 



197 



Miles Coverdale, a Yorkshireman, had been for 
some years helping his friend William Tyndal to 
translate the Bible. In the year 1536 the first 
printed copies of the Bible in English were im- 
ported from Switzerland into England. Cromwell 
then appointed Cran- 
mer and the bishops 
to revise the existing 
version of the Bible, 
and published it with- 
out note or comment, 
and in the year 1539 
a copy of the English 
Bible was chained to 
the reading-desk of 
every parish church. 
From that time the 
Bible has never ceased 
to be printed and sold 
freely. 

The Protestants now 
increased more rapidly 
in numbers, and in the 
short reign of Edward 
the Sixth, Henry's son, 
the government was in the hands of Protestants. 
In the next reign, Queen Mary, Henry's elder daugh- 
ter, who was a very strong Catholic, restored the 
Catholic religion ; and now Protestants were terri- 
bly persecuted. By the time Elizabeth, Henry's 




Chained Bible in the Church of 
St. Crux, York. 



I98 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 

younger daughter, came to the throne, people of 
both parties were sick of cruelty and torture, and 
Elizabeth herself had no strong liking for one re- 
ligion or the other. 

She had both Catholics and Protestants among 
her favorites and counsellors. She was inclined to 
allow people to believe what they pleased, so long 
as they were good subjects and acknowledged her 
as the head of the Church. She was a tyrant like 
her father, and punished Protestants and Catholics 
alike if they offended her. Persecution was not 
entirely given up for many years, but England 
never again suffered horrors such as those of 
Mary's reign. 

Many of the people were Catholics at the open- 
ing of Elizabeth's reign, but from its end, up to the 
present time. Catholics and Protestants alike have 
learned to live in friendship and peace with one 
another, and in common loyalty to their country, 
though their beliefs are not the same. 

Of course there is a great deal more to be 
learned about the Reformation than can be told in 
this book. But enough has been said to show that 
in England it began with a quarrel between the 
king and the Pope, and that when changes in 
belief followed, both sides thought that they were 
right, and both sides sometimes did wrong things in 
trying to make others believe as they did. 



THE STORY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 
I. MORE'S LIFE. 

Thomas More was the son of a lawyer, and was 
born in the year 1478. After he left school, the 
boy became a page in the service of the Archbishop 




Sir Thomas More. 

of Canterbury, Henry the Seventh's great minister, 

Cardinal Morton. The cardinal was pleased with 

the boy's wit and intelligence, and often said to the 

nobles who dined at his table, " This child here 

waiting at the table, whosoever shall live to see it, 

will prove a marvellous man." 

199 



200 THE STORY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 

After studying at Oxford, More became a student 
of law and a member of Parliament. When Henry 
the Eighth came to the throne, More soon won 
favor with him, and was taken into his service, and 
made a knight. His manners and conversation 
were so attractive that the king would often send 
for him after supper, and talk and joke with him. 
This kept him so much at court, that at last he 
had great difficulty in getting leave to go home and 
see his wife and children. So he began to be less 
talkative and merry, and put on such serious airs, 
and smiled so seldom, that the king began to think 
him a dull companion, and did not send for him 
quite so often. Thus he managed to get a little 
liberty. 

The home life of More was simple and charming. 
He was fond of his three little girls, and taught 
them very carefully, trying to win their interest by 
showing them all sorts of curious things that he 
had collected. " He was as fond of their pets and 
games as the children themselves, and would take 
grave scholars and statesmen into the garden to 
see his girls' rabbit-hutches, or to watch the gam- 
bols of their favorite monkey." When away from 
home, he would write amusing verses for his little 
ones to read, and he was always thinking about 
their happiness. 

No one was better pleased than More when the 
young king gave up his plans for war with France. 
He still enjoyed great favor with Henry. Once 



o 

x 

O 
d 



H 
o 

u 

> 




202 THE STORY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 

the king paid an unexpected visit to his house at 
Chelsea, " and after dinner, in a fair garden of his, 
he walked with him by the space of an hour, hold- 
ing his arm about his neck. 

" As soon as his Grace was gone," says More's 
son-in-law, " I, rejoicing, told Sir Thomas More how 
happy he was, whom the king had so familiarly en- 
tertained, as I have never seen him do to any before, 
except Cardinal Wolsey, whom I saw his Grace once 
walk with arm in arm." 

More replied : " I find his Grace my very good 
lord indeed, and I do believe he doth as singularly 
favor me as any subject within this realm. How- 
beit I may tell thee, I have no cause to be proud 
thereof. For if my head would win him a castle in 
France, it should not fail to go." 

When the question of putting away Queen Kath- 
arine arose, More, who was now lord chancellor, 
felt that he could not agree with Henry, and gave 
up his office. 

There never lived a more upright judge than 
More was. He refused to place his relatives in 
important positions, unless they were the men best 
fitted for them. It was impossible to bribe him, 
as some judges in those days were bribed. Once 
a gilt cup was given him by a lady as a New Year's 
present. He courteously drank her health in it, 
then returned it as a present to her husband. A 
rich widow, in whose favor he had given a judgment, 
sent him a large sum of money inside a pair of 



MORE S DEATH. 203 

gloves. "Since it were against good manners to 
forsake a gentlewoman's New Year's gift," he said, 
" I am content to receive your gloves, but as for 
your money I utterly refuse." 



II. MORE'S DEATH. 

After his retirement from office, More lived 
quietly with his family at Chelsea. But Henry 
was a king who never forgave any one who opposed 
him. When the act was passed which required the 
clergy and others to acknowledge that the king's 
first marriage was unlawful, More refused to take 
the oath. He was bidden to go to the archbishop's 
palace at Lambeth and there take the oath. As he 
went down the Thames in his boat, he sat silent for 
a while. Then he turned and said to his son-in-law, 
" I thank our Lord the field is won." By which 
he meant that he had conquered the temptation to 
give way, and would obey his conscience to the 
end. 

Nothing could make him change his mind, and 
he was sent a prisoner to the Tower. Some time 
after this an act was passed proclaiming Henry 
head of the Church, and declaring that any one 
who denied it was a traitor. Several clergymen 
w r ere executed for refusing to acknowledge Henry's 
headship, and from the window of his cell More 
saw them on their way to the block. Yet he spoke 
cheerfully to his daughter, who was visiting him, 



204 THE STORY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 

though he knew that the same fate would be his. 
When his wife came to see him, and said that he 
might, if he pleased, enjoy his house, his library, his 
books and gallery, his gardens and orchards, and 
live merrily with his family, instead of lying in a 
filthy prison among mice and rats, he said, " Tell 
me, is not this house as nigh heaven as mine own ? " 

By and by it was reported to the Parliament that 
the prisoner had spoken treasonable words ; and 
being brought to trial in Westminster Hall, this 
noble man was condemned to death, after he had 
defended himself in a splendid speech. A week 
afterwards, he was led from the Tower to the place 
of execution. 

The scaffold shook with his weight as he mounted 
the steps. He turned and said cheerfully to the 
officer, " I pray you, I pray you, Mr. Lieutenant, 
see me safe up, and for my coming down let me 
shift for myself." 

Then kneeling down, he said a short prayer. 
After which he rose, and turning to the headsman, 
he smiled, and said : " Pluck up thy spirits, man, 
and be not afraid to do thine office, for my neck is 
very short. Take care that you do not aim awry." 
He placed his head calmly on the block, but raised 
it again to move his beard out of the path of the 
axe. " Pity that should be cut," he said, " that has 
committed no treason." 

" So passed Sir Thomas More out of this world to 
God upon the very same day in which himself had 



MORE S DEATH. 205 

most desired." When the news was told to the 
Emperor Charles, he sent for the English ambas- 
sador, and said, " We would rather have lost the 
best city of our dominions than have lost such a 
worthy counsellor." 

Sir Thomas More, besides being the wisest, wit- 
tiest, and noblest Englishman of his day, was the 
author of a famous book about an imaginary island 
called Utopia. The name is Greek, and means No- 
where-land, and the book describes the people and 
customs of a land where all was happiness, peace, 
and contentment, — a land which, the author knew 
too well, existed nowhere. 

More's object in writing this book was to draw 
men's attention to evils in his own country, and to 
what might be done to remedy them. He saw that 
the king and his great men thought too much of 
war and wealth and grandeur, and not enough of 
the happiness and welfare of the people whom they 
were set to govern. It was his wish to turn their 
thoughts to this subject, and show, by means of his 
picture of Utopia, what a blessed place to live in 
such a land must be. 

Nowadays there are many earnest men and women 
whose minds are filled with the same desires that 
caused More to write his wonderful book, and who 
are working hard and unselfishly to help the poor 
and the wretched, and to make the world a little 
more like the Utopia which no man has ever seen. 



THE STORY OF LADY JANE GREY. ' 
I. THE QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION. 

The list of the sovereigns of England does not 
contain the name of Queen Jane ; yet for twelve 
days, Queen Jane was sovereign of the country, 
though only in name. She is best known as Lady 
Jane Grey ; and to understand her unhappy story, 
we must return to the reign of Henry the Eighth. 

Not three years had passed after Henry's mar- 
riage with Anne Boleyn, before the tyrant king was 
tired of her, and had fallen in love with one of her 
maids of honor, Lady Jane Seymour. He found 
out, or pretended to find out, that Anne was not a 
faithful wife ; and though she declared her innocence, 
she was beheaded. The very next day Henry mar- 
ried his third wife, Jane Seymour. To his great 
delight, she became the mother of a prince, who was 
named Edward; but the queen died a week after 
his birth. Henry had now three children, Mary, 
Elizabeth, and Edward ; and though he married 
three more wives, no more children were born to 
him. 

Three years before his death, Henry made a will 

in which he settled the succession to the crown. 

Parliament accepted his arrangement, and passed 

an Act confirming it. By this Act, when Henry 

206 



THE QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION. 207 

died, the crown was to pass first to Edward, then to 
Mary if Edward left no child, and then to Elizabeth 
if Mary died childless. If all three left no children, 
the next heirs were declared to be the descendants 
of Henry's sister, Mary, who had married Charles 
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. 

At Henry's death, therefore, his son became King 
Edward the Sixth. As he was only ten years old, 
it was decided that the kingdom should be governed 
for him until he reached the age of eighteen. The 
poor boy did not live so long. He was a quiet, 
studious lad, and very anxious to do what was right, 
and he had been brought up as a strict Protestant. 
His reign is chiefly memorable for the drawing up 
of the Book of Common Prayer, which, slightly 
altered, is still in use ; and for the foundation of 
sixteen grammar schools in various parts of the 
country. 

Edward being too young to govern, a protector 
was appointed to rule in his stead. There were two 
men who held this office, one after the other, both 
of whom made themselves hated by their unwise 
actions. The first, the Duke of Somerset, was de- 
prived of his office by his enemies, and afterwards 
beheaded ; the second, the Duke of Northumber- 
land, brought the same fate upon himself by his 
ambition. 

In the sixth year of his reign, Edward became so 
ill that it was clear he could not live long ; and the 
Duke of Northumberland resolved to make himself 



2o8 THE STORY OF LADY JANE GREY. 

all powerful in the land. He told the dying king 
that if Henry's will were carried out, and Mary 
became queen, she, being a Roman Catholic, would 
restore the power of the Pope in England. He also 
said that Elizabeth had no right to the crown, be- 
cause her mother, Anne Boleyn, had not been legally 
Henry's wife. After Elizabeth, the next heirs, by 
Henry's will, were the grandchildren of his sister, 
the Duchess of Suffolk ; and the eldest of these, 
Lady Jane Grey, had just been married to North- 
umberland's son, Lord Guilford Dudlev. In this 
marriage we find the explanation of the Protector's 
conduct. 

Northumberland now persuaded Edward to make 
a will, appointing the Lady Jane his heir, and called 
upon the great peers and the chief state officials to 
sign it. In vain it was pointed out that Parliament 
alone could settle the succession to the throne ; 
Northumberland violently demanded their assent to 
his scheme, and they were afraid to refuse. Little 
more than a fortnight later, the young king died, 
and the most important men in the country had 
promised to make Lady Jane Grey queen. 



II. THE FATE OF LADY JANE. 

The Lady Jane was a young girl of sixteen years, 
and knew nothing of her father-in-law's designs. 
She had been carefully brought up as a Protestant. 
She was very bright and intelligent, and an excel- 



THE FATE OF LADY JANE. 200, 

lent scholar, knowing Latin and Greek, in addition 
to Italian and French. Above all, her character 
was pure and beautiful. 

When Northumberland sent for her, and told her 
that Edward was dead, and that she was to be 
queen, she burst into tears. Edward had been her 
playmate and fellow pupil ; she was distressed at 
his death, and also at her own unfitness to succeed 
to his great office. She at first refused the crown, 
and only accepted it after much persuasion. 

She was led, richly dressed, through the streets 
of London, and proclaimed queen at the Tower ; but 
no one except her own heralds raised a cheer for 
her. One apprentice boy ventured to say that 
Mary should be queen and not Lady Jane, and he 
was nailed by his ears to the pillory. The boy had 
only expressed the opinion of many others in the 
kingdom. Meanwhile a swift messenger had gal- 
loped off to tell Mary what had happened. North- 
umberland sent a party of men to seize her, but 
when they reached the house where she had been 
staying, she had escaped. 

Nobles and gentlemen now flocked to Mary from 
all parts, and she gained the support of many who 
had been forced to sign Edward's will in favor of 
Lady Jane. Northumberland raised an army and 
marched out of London to fight for Queen Jane ; 
but even his own men deserted and went over to 
Mary. While he was absent, Mary was proclaimed 
queen in London ; thousands of voices cried, " God 



2IO 



THE STORY OF LADY JANE GREY. 




THE FATE OF LADY JANE. 



21 I 



save the Queen ! " — bells pealed, and bonfires blazed. 
Most of the people were for the rightful queen ; 
they detested Northumberland for his pride and 
his bad government ; large numbers of them were 
Catholics, and wished for a Catholic queen. 




Lady Jane Grey and Roger Ascham. 

Northumberland and many of his friends were 
arrested and thrown into the Tower, and Mary rode 
into London in triumph. The prisoners were tried 
and condemned for treason, and Northumberland 
and two others were executed ; but Mary spared 
Lady Jane, whom she knew to be innocent. She 



212 THE STORY OF LADY JANE GREY. 

and her young husband were sent to the Tower; 
but they suffered no harsh treatment, and at first 
enjoyed some liberty within the walls. 

Unhappily, Lady Jane soon had to suffer for the 
crimes of others. When Mary proposed to marry 
Philip, the king of Spain, many of her subjects 
were deeply offended. Sir Thomas Wyatt, a brave 
and accomplished man, raised the men of Kent in 
rebellion, and led them towards London, declaring 
that they would not have a Spaniard as their king. 
Mary was at first in great danger of losing her 
crown ; but she won the Londoners to her side by 
a spirited speech. When the insurgents arrived at 
London Bridge, hoping to gain possession of the 
city, they found the gate shut and the drawbridge 
broken down. 

Hastening to Kingston-on-Thames, Wyatt crossed 
the river there, and marched through the night 
towards the city. The roads were heavy with mire ; 
many of his men lost courage and returned to their 
homes ; and the rest, weary and faint with hunger, 
broke and fled at the first attack of the queen's 
troops. Wyatt was captured at Ludgate Hill and 
sent to the Tower; hundreds of his supporters 
were huddled into the common prisons until they 
could be hanged. 

And now Mary's vengeance fell on the Lady 
Jane. She had taken no part in the rebellion, 
and the rebels had not taken arms for her ; but per- 
haps, if they had succeeded, she would have become 



THE FATE OF LADY JANE. 213 

queen. While she lived, Mary felt that her throne 
was not secure. On February 12, 1554, six months 
after she had accepted the crown, Lady Jane was 
led out to execution. She had just seen her hus- 
band's dead body carried past her window, for he 
suffered first. She walked firmly and quietly to the 
scaffold ; while her attendants wept bitterly as they 
accompanied her. She sprang lightly up the steps 
of the scaffold, and told the people who crowded 
round that she had broken the law in accepting the 
crown ; but that she had meant no wrong, and the 
guilt was not hers. Then she laid her head on 
the block, and at one stroke of the axe, the good, 
beautiful girl was dead. 



THE STORY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
I. ELIZABETH AND MARY. 

During the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, Eng- 
land rose to a height of greatness and importance 
to which it had never risen before. It owed much 
to great statesmen and soldiers and sailors, but also 
a very great deal to the queen herself. 

Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry the Eighth 
and Anne Boleyn. When she was less than three 
years old, her mother was beheaded. The little 
girl's life was not a very happy one. During the 
reign of her brother Edward the Sixth, Elizabeth 
lived at various manor-houses, and had for her 
teacher a wise tutor named Roger Ascham. While 
her sister Mary was queen, Elizabeth was in some 
danger of losing her life. Mary, who was the 
daughter of Henry's first queen, Katharine, was a 
strong Roman Catholic, and was eager to prevent 
the growth of the Protestant religion in England. 
Elizabeth was thought to be a Protestant, like her 
mother, and only her prudence prevented her from 
suffering for her religion. 

When Mary died, England was in a sad condi- 
tion. Mary and her counsellors had so cruelly 
treated people who did not agree with them in 

religion, that the nation was sick of the whole 

214 



ELIZABETHS CHARACTER. 215 

matter. She had gone to war with France, too, to 
please her husband, Philip of Spain ; and the Eng- 
lish had been beaten, and had lost Calais, which 
had belonged to them for more than two hundred 
years. The loss of Calais made Mary so unpopu- 
lar that the whole nation was quite pleased to hear 
of her death. 

Thus the people were ready to give a hearty wel- 
come to their new queen, the Princess Elizabeth. 
She had behaved so prudently during the five years 
of her sister's reign, that nobody quite knew what 
sort of queen she would be, and so both Catholics 
and Protestants thought that they might be favored 
by her. 

II. ELIZABETH'S CHARACTER. 

When she became queen, Elizabeth was twenty- 
five years old. She had a queenly figure, a pleas- 
ing if not a beautiful face, and a mind that had been 
well trained. She was " a bold horsewoman, a good 
shot, a graceful dancer, a skilled musician, and an 
accomplished scholar." She could read Greek and 
Latin, and speak Italian and French, and she keenly 
enjoyed the poems and plays which the splendid 
writers of her time produced. She was careful of 
money; indeed, she was miserly, and would not 
allow money to be spent even when it was needed 
for the defence of the country. 

But she was anxious to make the people fond of 
her, and she did not wish heavy taxes to be put 



2l6 



THE STORY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



upon them. On one occasion she returned part 
of the money which the House of Commons had 
ordered to be collected for her. Fear was unknown 
to her. There were many people who would have 
liked to kill her, but she took no care for her own 
safety, and allowed some of her most dangerous 




Queen Elizabeth. 

enemies to come freely to her court. She hated 
war, and kept out of it as much as she could. 

Besides these good qualities she had some bad 
ones. Though sparing in some things, she spent 
large sums of money on dress, and she loved show. 
She was deceitful, and fond of trickery, rather than 
of straightforward dealing. She was vain and 



ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 217 

proud, and sometimes gave way to furious bursts of 
anger, even going so far as to box the ears of one of 
her councillors when he displeased her. 

Her ideas of what was honest and fair were 
strange. Once a number of Spanish ships, carrying 
money to Philip's governor in the Low Countries, 
came into English ports to escape the pirates who 
sailed the English Channel. Philip had borrowed 
the money from Italian money-lenders, but Eliza- 
beth ordered it to be seized and brought to her. 
She would borrow it herself, she said. 

One of her worst faults was want of gratitude to 
the men who served her well. She did not dismiss 
or put to death her ministers for slight faults, as her 
father Henry had done ; but she was often ungen- 
erous in her treatment of them. Sir Francis Wal- 
singham, a man of great ability, and one to whom 
Elizabeth owed her life and who spent his whole 
fortune in her service, died so poor that he had to 
be buried at night to save expense. 



III. ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 

Englishmen in the reign of Elizabeth lived very 
differently from Englishmen of to-day. Their 
houses were not well built, but they ate good, 
wholesome food; indeed, a Spaniard in writing 
about their ways said, " These Englishmen have 
their houses of sticks and dirt, but they fare com- 
monly as well as the king." 



2l8 THE STORY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

People got up at four o'clock in the morning all 
the year round. At five o'clock they had breakfast 
of bread and beef and beer, and then the laborers 
went to work, and the gentlemen to pleasure or 
business. Food was cheap ; beef and pork could 
be bought for one cent a pound, a chicken for two 
cents, and the best goose in a country market for 
eight cents. For two cents a working-man could 
buy as much as would now cost him twenty-five 
cents ; but money was scarcer and wages were 
lower than in our days. 

The houses of the poor were made " of sticks and 
dirt," as the Spanish writer said ; but buildings were 
being greatly improved. Instead of holes in the roof 
through which the smoke from the fires passed out, 
chimneys were built. Instead of having mere holes 
in the walls, or small windows of thin horn, the 
people now began to have larger windows of glass. 
Glass then cost a good deal of money, and some 
people grumbled at the expense of the new windows. 

Furniture began to be improved. Up to this 
time beds like ours were almost unknown. People 
used to sleep on pallets of straw, and rest their 
heads on bags of chaff or logs of wood. But now 
feather and wool beds came into use. The floors, 
instead of being strewed with rushes, in. which 
bones and waste food and filth of all kinds col- 
lected, were now covered with carpets. 

Nowadays there is not a very great difference 
between the dress of rich and poor. But in Eliza- 



ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 



219 



beth's time, the nobles spent untold wealth upon 
their dress. The queen set the example, and her 
courtiers seemed to try to outdo one another in the 
splendor of their clothing. They wore silks and 
velvets of the most gaudy colors, while the poorer 
classes dressed in plain garments of woollen cloth 
and leather. 




Costumes at the Time of Elizabeth. 



Every man was bound by law to keep arms in his 
house, according to the amount of his property. A 
man whose land was worth seventy-five dollars a year 
had to keep a hauberk, or shirt of mail, a helmet, a 
sword, a dagger, and a horse. A man whose land 
was worth only ten dollars a year kept a sword, a 
bow and arrows, and a dagger. Every man above 
fifteen years of age was bound to have bow and 
arrows, so that all the men could be called out as 



2 20 THE STORY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

soldiers if need arose. Shooting with bow and 
arrows was a favorite exercise and amusement. 

Every village had its pair of archery butts, " and 
on Sundays and holidays, all able-bodied men were 
required to appear in the field to employ their lei- 
sure hours as valiant Englishmen ought to do." 
Young men of the upper classes amused themselves 
with sword and lance exercises, and with practice in 
the use of firearms. Field sports were also com- 
mon, such as fishing, shooting, and hunting. The 
forests were kept for the sake of the rich, and poor 
men were forbidden by law to hunt in them. 

The trade of the country was rapidly growing in 
extent and importance. A large number of the 
people were employed in growing crops and in 
pasturing sheep, — occupations of far more impor- 
tance then than they are in England now. The 
wool from the sheep had formerly been sent across 
to Flanders to be woven into cloth, and to Florence 
to be dyed ; but now Englishmen had learned to 
weave it and dye it themselves. Manufactures of 
woollen and iron goods now greatly increased, and 
Manchester and Sheffield were rising towns. 

The daring of English seamen was opening up 
new markets for English goods abroad, and was 
bringing goods from other lands to England. To- 
bacco, mahogany, maize, and potatoes first became 
known in England in this reign, and with new 
materials new trades and occupations arose. 

In one matter particularly Elizabeth showed her 



ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 22 1 

good sense. It was the custom to reward favorites 
with the grant of monopolies, that is, the sole right 
to trade in certain articles. Thus Sir Walter 
Raleigh had the sole right to export woollen broad- 
cloth for a certain length of time ; also, he had the 
right to demand a fee from every dealer in wine. 
Now this of course made such articles dearer than 
they would otherwise have been, and people com- 
plained of the high prices they had to pay. When 
the House of Commons objected to the monopolies, 
Elizabeth admitted the justice of the complaints, 
and took away a number of the monopolies from 
the courtiers to whom they had been given. 

Elizabeth's reign is famous for the beginning of 
the poor-laws. Though most people were then able 
to live in comfort, there was a large number of poor 
folks. Men who were maimed in war, and men 
who were too old and feeble to work, or who could 
not get work, had either to beg or to starve. There 
were severe laws against beggars who were well and 
strong, but too lazy to work, and hundreds of such 
men were caught and hanged every year. But that 
did not help those who were willing but unable to 
work. So at last laws were made by which the 
people of every district were bound to look after 
their own poor and old people, and to provide homes 
and food for them. Those who could work were 
made to do so ; and thus great numbers of idle men, 
instead of being left to become robbers, were made 
harmless and useful members of society. 



THE STORY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
I. MARY AND DARNLEY. 

Mary Stuart, daughter of James the Fifth of 
Scotland, was a queen from her babyhood, for she 
was crowned when she was less than a year old. 
As she grew older, Henry the Eighth w T as hoping 
that he might be able to bring about a marriage 
between the young Scotch queen and his son, Ed- 
ward the Sixth. This would have united the two 
countries under one crown. 

But Mary's mother had been a French princess, 
and she was not willing that her daughter should 
marry an English king, so when the little girl was 
five years old she was sent to France to be edu- 
cated. At the age of sixteen she married Francis, 
the eldest son of the French king ; and when, in less 
than a year, he succeeded to the throne, Mary be- 
came queen of both France and Scotland. 

Francis had reigned only eighteen months when 
he died, and the young girl found herself facing a 
great responsibility. She had already lost her 
mother who had been ruling Scotland for her, and 
now the Scots were eager for her to return to her 
own country. 

Mary loved the gay court of France and she was 
distressed at the thought of the difficulties which 

222 



MARY AND DARNLEY. 



223 




Mary Queen of Scots leaving France. 



224 THE STORY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 

awaited her in Scotland. The French were a bright, 
pleasant people, while the Scotsmen were rough 
and plainspoken. Moreover, many of them were 
under the influence of the reformers, led by the 
stern John Knox, who denounced the life of gayety 
and ease to which Mary was accustomed. She de- 
cided, however, to leave her beloved France, and 
return to her native land. 

For years the king of Scotland had been kept 
in power mainly by the aid of French troops. At 
last, with England's help, the reformers grew strong 
enough to drive out the French, and the control 
fell into the hands of a number of nobles who 
called themselves, " Lords of the Congregation." 

Mary was an ardent Catholic, and had it not been 
for the charm of her youth and beauty, she would 
have had serious trouble with her sternly Protes- 
tant people. As it was, she gave great offence to 
many of her lords by her marriage to Henry, Lord 
Darnley, a handsome young man of nineteen. 

He was not a stiong character, and Mary allowed 
neither him nor his friends to have any power in 
the government. They were enraged at this, es- 
pecially when Mary, instead of asking their advice, 
often consulted her secretary, an Italian named 
David Rizzio. One evening Mary's husband, with 
four friends, burst into the room where Rizzio was 
sitting with the Queen, stabbed him as he clung to 
her dress for protection, and then dragged him into 
an ante-room where they hacked him to death. 



MARY S MISFORTUNES. 



225 



Mary's dislike of her husband now turned to hatred, 
which, however, she carefully concealed. She treated 
him with apparent friendliness and won him over 
to her interest. 



II. MARY'S MISFORTUNES. 



Not long after this, Darnley fell sick and was 
lodged in a solitary house near Edinburgh. Mary 




West End of Princes Street, Edinburgh. 

nursed him with every appearance of tenderness. 
One night, when he was left alone with an attend- 
ant, the house was blown up and burned to ashes. 
The next day the dead bodies of Darnley and his 
page were found in the garden. 

Lord Both well, a few weeks afterwards, seized the 
queen as she was out riding, carried her off to 
Dunbar, and there married her. The whole nation 
was shocked and indignant, for they believed that 



2 26 THE STORY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 

Mary and Both well had planned the murder of 
Darnley together. The Protestant " Lords of the 
Congregation " flew to arms, while the Catholics 
held aloof from a queen whose marriage with a 
Protestant they could not forgive. Still, Bothwell 
was able to raise a fair force and met the lords at 
Carberry Hill ; but his men refused to fight, and 
Bothwell fled to Denmark, where he afterwards died 
in prison. Mary surrendered and was taken back 
to Edinburgh. 

The lords imprisoned the captive queen in Loch- 
leven Castle, which stood in the middle of a lake. 
Here Mary was forced to resign her crown to her 
baby son, James, and to appoint her half-brother, 
the Earl of Moray, regent. After nearly a year 
Mary made her escape. A page took the keys" of 
the castle from beside the plate of the governor as 
he sat at supper, and ran off with them. Mary fol- 
lowed the lad down the stairs. She unlocked the 
outer gate and passed through with one or two 
companions, locked it behind her, and sprang into 
a little boat that lay by the shore. 

They rowed rapidly across to where a number of 
lords and other friends were waiting on horseback, 
and galloped off in safety. A large number of nobles, 
with other armed men, joined Mary at Hamilton. 
When the Earl of Moray heard of the queen's es- 
cape, he' speedily raised an army in defence of young 
King James. He met and defeated the queen's 
forces at Langside, two miles south of Glasgow. 



MARYS MISFORTUNES. 227 

When Mary saw that all was lost she rode off 
with a few friends towards the south, covering sixty 
miles before she rested. At the coast of the Solway 
Firth she embarked in a fishing boat for England, 
for she hoped that Queen Elizabeth would protect 
her and restore her to her kingdom. 

Years before, Mary had claimed to be the rightful 
queen of England, and many of the English Cath- 
olics supported her claim. She was certainly heir 
to the throne in the event of Elizabeth's death. 
The Catholics of the north flocked to her, and the 
Duke of Norfolk, the head of the English nobility, 
wished to marry her. 

Mary demanded that Elizabeth should either re- 
store her to her position as queen of Scotland or 
allow her to go to France. Elizabeth said that she 
would help her if she would stand trial and show 
that the charges made against her by the Scots 
were untrue; but Mary declared that she, a queen, 
could not be tried by English judges, and then 
Elizabeth decided to keep her in England. 

For the next twenty years Mary passed a weary 
life, moving from one mansion to another in the 
charge of guardians set over her by Elizabeth. All 
the time her friends were working to make her 
queen of England. Some were trying to persuade 
the king of Spain to invade England in her favor. 
They wished to depose Elizabeth and restore the 
old religion, and several plots were formed for car- 
rying out these designs. At length one of these 



2 28 THE STORY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 

plots, which was said to have had for its object the 
murder of Queen Elizabeth, was found out, and all 
the conspirators were brought to trial and executed. 
Mary herself was arrested by a troop of soldiers as 
she was riding out with a hunting party. She 
was taken to Fotheringay castle and charged with 
plotting the death of the queen. After a trial be- 
fore forty-five judges she was found guilty, and the 
Parliament begged Elizabeth to have her put to 
death. 

Elizabeth at first hesitated, but at last she gave 
way, and on February 18, 1587, the hapless Queen 
of the Scots was beheaded at Fotheringay. She 
met her death bravely and calmly, declaring her 
innocence. Indeed, there are to this day people 
who believe that the charges against her were 
false. 



THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
I. HIS EARLY LIFE. 

In the last years of the reign of Edward the 
Sixth, a little, chubby, blue-eyed, curly headed boy 
might have been seen playing on the deck of an 




Sir Francis Drake. 

old ship moored off Chatham dockyard. The boy 
was Francis Drake. Brought up on the hulk 
which was his father's only house, his eyes were 

constantly upon masts and rigging and guns, his 

229 



23O THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 

ears were filled with the rough talk and the 
jolly songs of the mariners, and he grew up with a 
longing to enter the royal navy. 

When Queen Mary came to the throne, Francis 
became a ship-boy on a small vessel that sailed to 
France and Holland. It was hard and rough work, 
but the boy grew up sturdy and strong, and with a 
deep hatred of the king of Spain for the cruelty 
with which he treated his Dutch subjects. 

Soon after Elizabeth became queen, Drake's 
master died and left him his ship. With this he 
traded for some years ; but when the king of Spain, 
by shutting his seaports against English ships, ruined 
Drake's trade, he sold his ship and entered the ser- 
vice of John Hawkins, the bold sea-rover and slave- 
trader. 

After a successful trading voyage the English 
ships were driven by a storm into a Spanish port 
on the Gulf of Mexico. There, in spite of a prom- 
ise to allow them to refit in safety, the Spaniards 
basely attacked them unawares, and Hawkins lost 
half his ships. From that moment he and Drake 
vowed to show no mercy to Spain. 



II. ONE OF DRAKE'S ADVENTURES. 

The life of Sir Francis Drake is full of adventure. 
He was the first English navigator to sail round 
the world, and the story of the perils and miseries 
and triumphs of that famous voyage would fill this 



ONE OF DRAKE S ADVENTURES. 



23I 



book. With the story of how he " singed the king 
of Spain's beard," we must leave the bold hero. 

The king of Spain had been for a long time pre- 
paring a great fleet, with which he meant to con- 
quer England. One day Drake slipped out of 
Plymouth with twenty-four ships, and set sail for 
Spain to see what damage he could do to the 




Drake in the Cabin of his Ship. 



Armada, as the Spanish fleet was named. After 
sailing round the coast, he led his fleet into the bay 
within which lies Cadiz harbor, and announced that 
he was going to attack the huge ships which lay at 
anchor there. Some of his officers thought him 
mad, for the Spanish ships were not only powerful, 
but they were defended by batteries on shore. 



232 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 

As the sun was setting, Drake sailed into the 
harbor. The merchant ships at once cut their 
cables and attempted to escape from the terrible 
Dragon, whose very name they feared, while ten 
war-ships came out to defend them. Having sent 
a part of his fleet to capture the flying vessels, with 
the rest Drake met the Spanish war-ships, which, 
before they could get their guns to bear, were 
pounded and ruined by English shot. 

Ship after ship was captured and sunk or burnt. 
Far in the depth of the harbor lay the splendid ship 
of Spain's greatest admiral amid a crowd of other 
huge vessels. Drake made straight for these, and 
before long, they too had been plundered and 
destroyed. 

Thus in thirty-six hours, Drake and his bold sea- 
men had utterly destroyed many of the finest ships 
in the world, and captured enough provisions to 
store his fleet for months. This he called " singe- 
ing the king of Spain's beard " ; and thus he suc- 
ceeded in delaying the departure of the great 
Armada for a year, until new ships and fresh stores 
had been got ready by the Spaniards to replace 
those they had lost. 

With the defeat of the Armada in the year 1588, 
Drake crowned his fame. He had been knighted 
by the queen on his return from his voyage round 
the world, and he was now the darling of the whole 
country. All Europe rang with the glory of his 
name, and in Spain the mischievous street boys 



ONE OF DRAKES ADVENTURES. 233 

yelled under the windows of the beaten Spanish 
admiral, "Drake is coming! Drake is coming!" 

During the remaining eight years of his life, 
Drake won no more great successes. When Spain 
was preparing a new Armada for the conquest of 
England, Drake led an expedition against it, and 
destroyed much shipping, but the loss of life on the 
English side was terrible. 

He joined in an attempt to restore to the throne 
of Portugal the sovereign whom Philip had deposed, 
but it ended in failure. Then Drake in some way 
lost the favor of the queen, and while other admi- 
rals were scouring the seas, he had to remain at 
home as governor of Plymouth. There he did 
good work by building mills, and by bringing a 
supply of water to the town from the river Meavy. 

Drake did much for the strength and glory of 
England. He believed he was doing God's work 
in taking from Spain the wealth that would have 
been used to help crush the Protestants. He never 
allowed churches to be destroyed, he never killed 
his prisoners, and his men had strict orders never 
to hurt a woman or an unarmed man. 



THE STORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 

I. THE SAILING OF THE ARMADA. 

"On the afternoon of the 19th July, a.d., 1588, a 
group of English captains was collected at the 
Bowling Green on the Hoe at Plymouth, whose 
equals have never before or since been brought 
together. There was Sir Francis Drake, the terror 
of every Spanish coast in the old world and the 
new ; there was Sir John Hawkins, the rough vet- 
eran of many a daring voyage and of many a des- 
perate battle ; there was Sir Martin Frobisher, one 
of the earliest explorers of the Arctic seas ; there 
was the high admiral of England, Lord Howard of 
Effingham, a man of wise and noble courage, skilful 
in sea matters, wary and prudent, and beloved by the 
sailors. 

" A match at bowls was being played, in which 
Drake and other high officers of the fleet were 
engaged, when a small armed vessel was seen 
running before the wind into Plymouth harbor, 
with all sails set. Her commander landed in haste, 
and eagerly sought the- place where the English lord 
admiral and his captains were standing. He was 
the master of a Scotch privateer, and he told the 
English officers that he had that morning seen the 
Spanish Armada off the Cornish coast. At this 

234 



THE SAILING OF THE ARMADA. 



235 



exciting information the captains began to hurry 
down to the water, but Drake coolly checked his 
comrades, and insisted that the match should be 







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News brought to Drake and the English Captains that the Armada 

had been Sighted. 

played out." " There is time to finish the game first, 
and beat the Spaniards afterwards," he said. That 
was the spirit in which the English went to the fight. 



236 



THE STORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 



Beacon-fires were lit along the coast. " The warn- 
ing flew to London, swift messengers galloping be- 
hind it. There was saddling and arming in village 
and town, and musters flocking to their posts. Loyal 
England forgot its difference of creeds, and knew 
nothing but that the invader was at the door." 

" The most fortunate and invincible Armada " was 
the title which Philip of Spain, in the pride of his 




The Spanish Armada in the English Channel. 
From a contemporary print. 

heart, gave to the great fleet which he had been pre- 
paring for so many years. With this fleet he intended 
to avenge the many injuries and insults he had 
suffered at the hands of Englishmen, and to depose 
Elizabeth. 

For years he had spent untold treasure upon his 
preparations. The fleet at last sailed for England, 
under the Duke of Medina Sidonia, one of the great- 



THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 237 

est of Spanish grandees. There were 132 Spanish 
ships in all, many of them huge vessels that rose 
like castles out of the sea. Seventeen thousand 
of the picked soldiers of Spain were on board, 
with eight thousand sailors, and hundreds of doc- 
tors, priests, and slaves. 

At that time the royal navy of England consisted 
of only thirty-six ships, all of them smaller than the 
war-ships of Spain. But many private gentlemen, 
sea-rovers, and merchants had ships, which they were 
eager to send to sea for the defence of their loved 
England. England was fortunate in her captains, 
men of splendid daring and courage, who had 
fought and beaten the Spaniards on the sea in all 
parts of the world. The common seamen were 
worthy of their commanders. They loved their 
country, and would have died for their officers. 
They cheerfully put up with the bad and scanty 
food which was all that the stinginess of the queen 
would allow to be provided. 



II. THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 

When the game of bowls was finished, the Eng- 
lish captains put out to sea, and waited for the com- 
ing of the enemy. As the beacons gave the signal, 
ships of all sorts and sizes poured out from every 
harbor, until the English fleet numbered some one 
hundred and sixty vessels, most of them manned by 
volunteers. 



238 THE STORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 

Now, Philip's plan was for the Armada to sail up 
the Channel until it reached Dunkirk, and there to 
anchor and allow a huge army, under the Duke of 
Parma, to cross from Antwerp to England in safety. 
The Spaniards were anxious to get through the 
dangerous Channel as soon as possible. 

The plan of the English admirals was to avoid a 
general battle with the enemy, but to single out and 
attack certain of their ships, doing as much damage 
as they could with as little risk as possible to them- 
selves. The English sailors were skilful at their 
work, and could fire rapidly at the Spanish ships, 
making every shot effective. The guns of the 
Spaniards were fired slowly, their aim was not true, 
and most of their shot passed over the low decks of 
the small English vessels. 

The Spaniards tried to lay hold of the English 
ships with grappling-irons, trusting in the superior 
numbers of their men if it came to a hand-to-hand 
fight. But Lord Howard, acting on the advice of 
Sir Walter Raleigh, had given strict orders to avoid 
coming to close quarters. The English therefore 
sailed their light ships as near as they pleased to 
those of the enemy, fired their broadsides, and sped 
to a safe distance before the unwieldy Spanish war- 
ships could be brought fairly into action. 

For a week this method of fighting, was pursued; 
but the Armada, in spite of all their efforts, gradu- 
ally drew nearer to its destination. It had suffered 
considerable damage, and two or three ships had 



THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 



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been captured ; but it was still strong and un- 
daunted, and the English had used up nearly all 
their ammunition, apparently without much success. 

At last the Spanish ships dropped anchor off 
Calais, with the English two miles behind them. 
At all costs, thought the English admirals, the Ar- 
mada must now be dislodged, for a change in the 
weather might enable the Duke of Parma to cross 
in safety under its protection. 

After midnight on the following day, which was 
Sunday, eight English ships, rilled with combusti- 
bles and smeared all over with pitch, were rowed 
silently in black darkness towards the crowded 
Spanish vessels lying at anchor. Suddenly the 
fire-ships burst into flame, and were carried by the 
wind and the tide right upon the Armada. A 
panic seized the Spaniards at the sight of these 
blazing monsters. Cables were cut in mad haste, 
and the swift tide carried the great fleet away from 
its anchorage into the open sea. 

In the morning the English admirals fell on the 
disordered fleet. For six hours the fight continued, 
and when night fell Drake kept close watch upon 
the Armada, hoping that the wind would drive the 
ships upon the sand-banks of the Dutch coast, and 
place them at his mercy. 

Next day the fight went on again. The Armada 
was drawing nearer and nearer to its doom, when 
suddenly the wind changed, and the Spanish admi- 
ral, thankful at having escaped wreck, gave orders 



THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 241 

to make all sail for the north, in the hope of escap- 
ing round Scotland. " There was never anything 
pleased me better," wrote Drake, " than the seeing 
the enemy flying with a southerly wind to the 
northward." 

For two days Drake and Howard chased the 
Spaniards. Then their powder and shot failed, a 
tempest sprang up, and with bitter disappointment 
at losing their prey they returned to the south, leav- 
ing the remnant of the great Armada to its fate. 
Storms tossed it upon the rock-bound coasts of 
Scotland and Ireland, and many ships were crushed 
and battered to destruction. Numbers of the Span- 
iards got ashore on the Irish coast ; some of these 
were slain by the wild natives, others were captured 
and sent from village to village, with halters about 
their necks, to be shipped to England. 

Elizabeth disdained to put them to death, and 
scorned to keep them ; so they were all sent back 
to their own country, "to witness and recount the 
worthy achievements of their invincible navy." 

Thus the storms joined with the dauntless brav- 
ery and unrivalled skill of English seamen to destroy 
proud Philip's great fleet. A medal was struck in 
Latin, to commemorate the event, with the motto 
" God blew, and they were scattered." Since that 
time England has striven to keep her position as 
mistress of the seas, and has looked upon her navy 
as her surest means of defence. 



THE STORY OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
I. RALEIGH A FAVORITE OF THE QUEEN. 

Among the great men of Queen Elizabeth's court 
none earned more splendid fame than Sir Walter 
Raleigh. He was born near the sea, in an old farm- 
house at the village of Budleigh, in the year 1552. 
As a boy, he is said to have been fond of the com- 
pany of sailors, and of reading all the books of 
voyages upon which he could lay hands. After 
studying at Oxford, he went to France among a 
band of gentlemen soldiers, who had offered to 
help the French Protestants in their fight for lib- 
erty of religion. He afterwards gave his services 
to the. people of the Low Countries, who were 
struggling against Spanish oppression. 

On returning to England, he began to study law 
in London ; but he spent a good deal of his time in 
freaks and frolics with other young men of fashion. 
Presently he was made captain of a hundred sol- 
diers in Ireland, where the people were constantly 
in rebellion. Raleigh did good service against the 
rebels ; but he grew tired of his duties there, and 
wrote to the Earl of Leicester, the queen's favorite, 
asking for other employment. At Leicester's invi- 
tation he returned to England, and quickly won 

high favor with the queen. It is said that Eliza- 

242 



RALEIGH A FAVORITE OF THE QUEEN. 243 

beth, walking one day with her ladies, came to a 
miry puddle, and hesitated to go on ; whereupon 
Raleigh, who happened to be there, instantly took 
off a new plush cloak from his shoulders and spread 
it over the mud. The queen stepped on this fair 
foot-cloth with a gracious smile ; she was pleased at 
Raleigh's readiness, and attracted by his handsome 
appearance. She rewarded him with a post in the 
palace, where one day he wrote with a diamond, on 
a window which the queen would pass, — 

" Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall." 

Elizabeth came up, and added the rhyming line, — 

"If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all." 

Raleigh soon became the queen's favorite courtier. 
Elizabeth liked his looks, for he was tall and hand- 
some, with curly hair and blue eyes ; she enjoyed 
his company, for he was polite and witty, and amused 
her with the stories he told in his broad but pleasant 
west-country accent. She made him captain of the 
yeomen of the guard, whose duty was to guard the 
palace and the person of the queen ; and she listened 
with attention to his advice in matters of state. 

Raleigh now rose high in wealth and importance ; 
the queen gave him estates in England and Ireland, 
and much of the property of the traitor Anthony 
Babington came to him. He spent large sums in 
buying armor and fine clothes, diamonds and pearls, 
books and pictures ; and in erecting houses, laying 



244 



THE STORY OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 



out gardens, and building ships. But he was not 
satisfied with an idle court life ; he wished to do 
something in the world. He proposed to join his 
half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in an expedi- 
tion to Newfoundland, but the queen would not 
part with him. Sir Humphrey went without him, 
and died on his return voyage. 




Sir Walter Raleigh. 



Though Raleigh was not allowed to seek adven- 
tures himself, he got leave from the queen to fit out 
an expedition for settling a number of colonists in 
America; for he had an idea that a great English 
empire might be founded beyond the seas. When 
his men returned from their voyage, bringing splen- 
did furs and pearls, he called the part of America 



RALEIGH IN DISGRACE. 245 

where they had landed Virginia, in honor of the 
Virgin Queen. He sent other expeditions to Vir- 
ginia, and tried to found a colony there. Every 
time his men returned, they brought with them new 
plants and fruits, such as potatoes, tobacco, and 
melons ; and told wonderful stories of the wealth 
and beauty of the great continent. 

Raleigh was said to have been the first to smoke 
tobacco in England. There is a story that one day 
a servant, bringing a jug of ale into the room where 
Raleigh was sitting, was alarmed to see smoke com- 
ing from his mouth. The servant instantly emptied 
the jug over his master's head, to put out the fire 
which he thought was burning within him. 



II. RALEIGH IN DISGRACE. 

A year after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 
Raleigh paid a visit to his Irish estates. At that 
time Edmund Spenser, the great poet, was secretary 
to the governor of Ireland ; Raleigh visited him, and 
read the first three books of his poem The Fczrie 
Queene. When he returned to England he brought 
Spenser with him, and introduced him to the notice 
of Elizabeth. Raleigh now displeased the queen by 
marrying one of her maids of honor without permis- 
sion. For this he suffered six months' imprisonment 
in the Tower of London. 

Three years later he set out on a voyage to 
Guiana, a country in South America which was 



246 THE STORY OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 

reported to be marvellously rich in gold. One of 
its kings was said to delight in rubbing himself with 
turpentine, and then rolling about amid his gold 
dust till he looked like a golden image. Raleigh 
and his men sailed up the river Orinoco in search 
of a wonderful gold mine of which they had heard ; 
but though they saw signs of gold and silver in the 
soil, they did not discover the mine. On his return 
Raleigh wrote an account of the expedition, in which 
he told some strange stories that he had heard: 
stories of a tribe of women warriors, and of a race 
of people who had eyes in their shoulders. 

In the year after his return, news came that 
another fleet was fitting out in Spain for the inva- 
sion of England. The English government resolved 
to destroy it, and a fleet set out for Cadiz. Raleigh 
was one of the principal commanders, and planned 
the attack which proved such a brilliant success. 
Several Spanish ships in the harbor were captured, 
the town was taken by assault, while immense spoils 
were shared among the victors. 

Seven years after this Queen Elizabeth died, and 
James the Sixth of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of 
Scots and next heir to the throne, became King 
James the First of England. The new king at once 
showed great dislike towards Raleigh, who had not 
paid humble court to him before his accession. 
Raleigh, too, was proud ; and his pride, with his 
wealth and his successes, had made for him many 
enemies, who poisoned the king's mind against him. 



RALEIGH IN DISGRACE. 247 

He was tried for treason, unjustly condemned, and 
sent to the Tower to await execution. There he 
remained thirteen years, devoting his time to scien- 
tific studies and the writing of books. He finally 
persuaded the king to release him by promising to 
sail to Guiana and bring back untold wealth to 
the royal treasury. But the expedition was a sad 
failure, and on Raleigh's return to England the Span- 
ish ambassador demanded his death for the mischief 
he had done to the Spanish possessions. So James, 
to please the king of Spain, had him executed on 
the old charge of conspiracy. As Raleigh stood on 
the scaffold he called for the axe and said as he felt 
its keen edge, " This is sharp medicine, but it is a 
sure cure for all diseases." He refused to be blind- 
folded, and as he knelt gave the signal for the exe- 
cutioner to strike. The man hesitated. " What dost 
thou fear?'' cried Raleigh. "Strike, man, strike!" 
and his head was severed from the body. 

So died Sir Walter Raleigh, bravely as he had 
lived. He w r as in the first rank of discoverers, a 
great admiral, a fine soldier, a wise counsellor, a 
witty courtier, a poet, and a great prose writer. 
After his cruel death his faults were forgotten, and 
men remembered only his fine qualities. 

It is to Raleigh that England owes the beginning 
of her great colonial empire. Years after his death 
others took up his unfinished work, and the vast 
empire which he had only dreamed of became a 
reality. 



THE STORY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 
I. SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE. 

In the last year of Queen Elizabeth's reign there 
might have been seen, in the Mermaid tavern off 
Cheapside, as jolly and witty a company as ever met 
to enjoy an hour's pleasant chat. There was Sir 
Walter Raleigh, courtier, soldier, poet, and wit; 
there was Ben Jonson, once a soldier, now known 
as a great scholar and poet — a big man with a bad 
temper ; there was many another man whose name 
was made famous by play and poem. 

There, too, perhaps a little less boisterous in his 
merriment than some of the party, was a man who 
was called Will Shakespeare — one who watched the 
others with a twinkle in his light hazel eye, and 
whose voice they all listened to eagerly when he 
joined in their talk. That pleasant man, with the 
high forehead and long auburn hair, was the writer 
whom Englishmen boast of as the greatest poet the 
world has seen. He was not great by birth; his 
father was only a merchant in a country town : it 
was his own mighty genius that raised him to his 
high place among the world's great men. 

In Warwickshire, the heart of England, there is a 

little town called Stratford-on-Avon. Here William 

248 



SHAKESPEARE S LIFE. 249 

Shakespeare was born in April, 1564. Doubtless 
the boy was sent to King Edward VI.'s grammar 
school in the town, where he learnt among other 
things a little Latin. Perhaps, like the boys he 
afterwards wrote about, he went "with his satchel 
and shining morning face, creeping like snail un- 
willingly to school " ; or, like those other boys he 
mentions, sometimes played truant and picked black- 
berries instead. He left school early, for his father 
fell into misfortune. What he did then is not 
known ; but some people say that he helped his 
father. He certainly married when he was eighteen 
years old ; and, not very long" after, he left home to 
seek his fortune in the great city of London. 

Now, in the Guildhall of his native town, plays 
had sometimes been performed by travelling com- 
panies of actors. No doubt Shakespeare had been 
present at some of these performances, and he must 
have heartily enjoyed them ; for when he reached 
London, poor and a stranger, he seems to have gone 
at once to the theatre in search of work. It is said 
that he began by holding the horses of the gen- 
tlemen who came to see the play, and that he was 
so careful and polite that his services were much 
sought after. He paid boys to help him, and gentle- 
men, as they rode up, called out for " Shakespeare's 
boys " to come and mind their horses. 

Then Shakespeare was taken inside the theatre 
to assist the actors, and by and by he became an 
actor himself. Presently he began to show that he 



25O THE STORY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 




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SHAKESPEARE S LIFE. 



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could revise and improve the plays which were 
acted ; and after helping other men to write their 
works, at last he wrote plays that were entirely his 
own. His poems and plays won him the favor and 
friendship of great people. Several times he acted 
with his company before Queen Elizabeth, who was 
much pleased with his plays. 




The Globe Theatre, Bankside, Southwark. 

By and by he became one of the owners of the 
theatre ; and, being careful in business matters, he 
rose to a position of ease and comfort. He often 
paid visits to his home and family at Stratford, and 
it is pleasant to know that he helped his father 
to regain his prosperity. At length he was rich 
enough to buy a large house in his native town ; 
thither he returned to spend his last years as a quiet 



252 THE STORY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

country gentleman with his family. He died on 
April 23, 16 1 6, and was buried in the Parish Church 
at Stratford. 

II. SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS. 

Shakespeare's works are often all printed in one 
book, and that not a very large one. Perhaps some 
may wonder why Shakespeare has won fame as the 
greatest of the world's poets. It would be very 
difficult to tell the reason briefly ; but whoever reads 
Shakespeare's works for himself, and thinks about 
them, will begin to see a little why he deserves such 
praise. For one thing, when Shakespeare has said 
a thing, it seems impossible that it could ever be 
said in a better way. The little songs which occur 
in some of the plays are among the most charming 
gems of poetry in the English language. 

Shakespeare's plays, also, are wonderfully inter- 
esting. Some of them tell the stories of certain of 
the English kings : of the poor weak Richard the 
Second; the crafty Henry the Fourth; the brave 
Henry the Fifth, who fought and conquered at 
Agincourt, and his wild pranks when as yet only 
Madcap Harry. Others tell stories of the ancient 
world. One is the sad, splendid life of Coriolanus, 
the great Roman general who was expelled from 
Rome because the people could not endure his pride, 
and who, when he was going to fight against the 
city, turned back at the pleading of his wife and 
mother. Another is the story- of the murder of 



SHAKESPEARE S WORKS. 253 

Julius Caesar ; another, that of the Roman general 
Antony, who lost an empire through his own weak- 
ness and folly. Other plays tell stories of imagi- 
nary characters. Of Portia, the noble lady who 
saved the life of her husband's friend ; of Othello, 
the noble man who was led to murder his sweet, 
innocent wife by the lies of a villain ; of Rosalind, 
the bright, happy girl who dressed herself as a 
young man, and went gayly into banishment with 
her cousin Celia. 

Shakespeare was not, perhaps, very learned in 
books ; but he knew a great deal about plants 
and animals, whose habits he must have carefully 
observed ; and, above all, he seemed to know human 
nature through and through. The characters in 
his plays all seem to be living people ; among them 
there are heroes and cowards, fine soldiers and 
feeble-witted countrymen, witty jesters and amus- 
ing rogues, lovely and tender ladies and tigers in 
woman's shape. 

Shakespeare seemed to be able to show us almost 
every kind of man and woman, good and bad, and to 
know how to touch all our feelings, whether sad or 
joyous. We cannot help feeling sorry when we see 
poor old King Lear wandering in the storm, made 
mad by the unkindness of his daughters ; we must 
laugh at the mishaps of the fat, jolly, cowardly 
knight Falstaff ; every Englishman feels a thrill of 
pride in his country when he hears the splendid 
words of the dying John of Gaunt, — 



254 THE STORY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

" This royal throne of kings, this sceptr'd isle, 
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
This happy breed of men, this little world, 
This precious stone set in the silver sea." 

Last of all, though Shakespeare wrote his plays 
only for the amusement of those who went to see 
them, they contain many good lessons, which may 
help those who read them to be better, and wiser, 
and happier. It is pleasant to think that the play 
of The Tempest, probably the last that Shakespeare 
wrote, ends with scenes in which those who have 
been wronged forgive those who have wronged 
them ; and that the great poet passed his last 
years in good-will towards all men. 



THE STORY OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
I. RELICxIOUS FREEDOM. 

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Englishmen 
made many voyages over the seas to America. 
This they did partly out of a reckless spirit of 
adventure, partly out of hatred of Spain, and partly 
to gain a share of the matchless wealth of the 
new world. There came a time later, when Eng- 
lishmen sought America simply to find a home, 
because it had become impossible for them to live 
peaceably in England. No place was home to 
them where they were not free to worship God 
in the way they believed to be right; and when 
this liberty was denied them in England, they left 
their native land. 

When the English Church was first separated 
from that of Rome, the differences between the 
services of the two churches were not great. But 
soon a party grew up called the Puritans, who 
wished to make the church service much plainer 
and simpler than it had hitherto been. Now that 
the sovereign was head of the English Church, 
instead of the Pope, the people were ordered to 
worship in the way which the sovereign settled 
for them. Queen Elizabeth did not like the Puri- 

255 



256 THE STORY OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 

tans; she was fond of many of the old Catholic 
forms of worship, to which they objected ; and 
when some of them refused to attend church, 
because they did not like the form of. service which 
she had ordained, they were punished. 

Besides the Puritans, who wished to alter the 
form of worship, but not to leave the Church, there 
arose a small party who thought that the Church 
should be quite free from royal control. They held 
that neither the sovereign nor anybody else ought 
to say what people must believe, or how they must 
worship ; but that people should be at liberty to fol- 
low their own conscience in all religious matters. 
They thought that there should not be a state 
Church, or Church established by law. Those who 
held these views became known as Separatists or 
Independents, because they separated themselves 
from the state Church. Numbers of these people 
went to Holland in order to avoid the persecution 
which they suffered in England. 

When James the First ascended the throne, the 
Puritans hoped that he would make some of the 
changes in church matters which they desired ; but 
they were disappointed. The Independents were 
now still more harshly treated than they had been 
in Elizabeth's reign. They were few in numbers, 
and were so strict in their ways of life, and so scorn- 
ful of all who remained in the Established Church, 
that they were looked upon with dislike by all 
churchmen, whether Puritans or not. 



RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 257 

In the year 1608 a number of Independents left 
England, and joined their friends in Holland. They 
settled in Leyden ; but, being most of them country 
people, they found town-life irksome. Besides, their 
children, as they grew up, learnt foreign ways ; but 
the Independents still loved their native land, though 
they had been obliged to leave it, and they did not 
wish their children to become foreigners. 

After a time, therefore, they desired to find a 
new home, where they could live together in peace, 
away from the temptations of town-life, and where 
they could still keep their English character and 
manners. They decided to go to America, and the 
story of the band of courageous men and women 
who left England in the Mayflower, their sufferings 
from cold and famine and fever, their perseverance, 
and the reward of their toil is too well known to 
need repeating here, for this is the story of the Pil- 
grim- Fathers. 

Meanwhile, fresh persecution had arisen in Eng- 
land, and a Puritan emigration began again on a 
larger scale than the emigration of the Independents. 
Charles the First, who was now king, granted a 
charter to the new colony under the name of Massa- 
chusetts. Farmers, and country gentlemen, clergy- 
men and lawyers, God-fearing men of all classes, 
left their beloved country for conscience' sake. In 
the ten years from 1630 to 1640, twenty thousand 
Puritans sought a home in New England. 



THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
I. THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 

On June 7, in the year 1628, King Charles the 
First gave his assent to a famous document called 
the Petition of Right. It was a statement, drawn up 
by the House of Commons, reciting certain rights 
of the English people which had not been respected 
by the king, but which the House declared must be 
respected for the future. 

The Commons demanded, for example, that peo- 
ple should not be compelled to lend the king money, 
or to receive soldiers in their houses ; that no per- 
son should be imprisoned without the cause being 
stated, or should be tried by martial law in time of 
peace, but should be brought before the regular 
judges. People had suffered in the ways thus pro- 
tested against ; and when the House of Commons 
declared they would vote no money to the king 
until their demands were granted, Charles unwill- 
ingly gave his promise to that effect. 

One of the leading members of the House which 
forced this promise from the king was Sir Thomas 
Wentworth, the member for Yorkshire. He be- 
longed to an ancient and wealthy Yorkshire family, 
had been educated at Cambridge, and had suffered 

imprisonment for refusing to lend £40 to the king. 

258 



THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 259 

Charles had an unfortunate belief, encouraged by 
his adviser and favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, 
that he had a right to rule just as he pleased, and 
that Parliament only existed to carry out his will. 
There were members of Parliament, however, who 
thought differently. Men like John Pym and Sir 
John Eliot held that the king ought to govern as 




• King Charles the First. 

the nation wished, and that the wish of the nation 
was to be discovered by consulting the House of 
Commons, elected by the people. 

The quarrel between king and Parliament grew 
to a dangerous height. It had been the custom, at 
the opening of a new reign, for the House of Com- 
mons to vote to the king, for life, a tax called ton- 



260 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

nage and poundage. This was a tax on goods that 
came into and went out of the country. 

The House had only granted the tax to Charles 
for one year, and when the year had expired, Parlia- 
ment dissolved without renewing it. Without wait- 
ing for the consent of the Commons, Charles on his 
own account demanded payment of the tax. Sev- 
eral merchants who refused to pay it were thrown 
into prison. 

This enraged the members of the House, and 
when they met again they proposed resolutions 
declaring that any one who advised the collection of 
tonnage and poundage without their consent, or 
who paid the tax, was an enemy of the country. 
Charles ordered the House to disperse ; but the 
doors were locked, and the Speaker was held down 
in his chair until the resolutions were passed. The 
king immediately dissolved Parliament, and for 
eleven years ruled without one. 



II. THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND. 

After three years of energetic rule in the north 
of England, Wentworth was appointed Lord-deputy 
or Governor of Ireland. That country, which had 
in name belonged to England since the reign of 
Henry the Second, had in reality only been sub- 
jected to English rule in Elizabeth's reign. It was 
troubled by constant rebellions, and the majority of 
the people, being Roman Catholics, objected to the 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND. 26 1 

establishment of the English Church among them. 
Thus Catholics and Protestants lived in deadly 
enmity with one another. 

When Wentworth was sent to rule the island, he 
found it in a terrible condition. The taxes were 
unpaid, the army was ragged and disorderly; the 
Protestant churches were falling in ruins, and some 
were even used as stables and ale-houses. Part of 
the money which ought to have gone to the clergy 
was appropriated .by dishonest officials. The trade 
of the country was crippled by the pirates who 
infested the seas. The very ship which was con- 
veying Wentworth's goods to Ireland was captured 
by a pirate, and the new lord deputy lost furniture 
worth $20,000, and linen worth $2500. 

Wentworth was armed with full powers, and was 
answerable to the king alone. He set to work with 
energy to bring the country into a better state. He 
enforced the payment of taxes by Catholics and 
Protestants alike; he dismissed unjust officials, and 
reorganized the army ; repaired the churches and 
protected the clergy; and fitted out war-ships which 
soon swept the pirates from the seas. He improved 
trade, and spent much of his own money in encour- 
aging the cultivation of hemp and flax for the man- 
ufacture of linen. In many ways he showed that 
he had a sincere desire for the welfare of Ireland, 
and a passion for order and good government. 

But he made countless enemies, both in Ireland 
and in England. His ways were masterful ; and 



262 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

though his aims were often right and just, he used 
illegal and unjust means to carry them out. He 
offended the Protestants by allowing the Catholics 
to worship in their own way; he offended many of 
the Catholics by declaring that their lands belonged 
to the king, and by bringing over Protestants to 
settle on them. His great aim was to make the 
king all powerful in the country, and to show both 
Catholics and Protestants that they must depend 
on the king's power for support and protection. 
This was the system which he nicknamed " Thor- 
ough " in his letters to his friend, Archbishop 
Laud. 

III. MORE TROUBLE FOR KING CHARLES. 

While Wentworth was winning hatred by his 
conduct in Ireland, the king and Archbishop Laud 
were exciting enmity by their doings in England. 
William Laud was made Archbishop of Canterbury 
in the same year that Wentworth crossed to Ire- 
land. He was a good and an able man, unselfish, 
and kind to the poor ; his aim was a noble one — 
to unite all Christian people in one pure and strong 
church. But, like Wentworth, he tried to drive 
people instead of leading them ; he attempted to 
force his own opinions on the nation, and he failed. 

One of the Courts of Law which Laud used to 
enforce his will and that of King Charles, was that 
known as The Court of the Star Chamber. This 
court had power to punish any one of whose acts 



MORE TROUBLE FOR KING CHARLES. 263 

the king did not approve, whether the act were 
against the law or not, and its judgments were often 
very cruel. 

During the years when there was no Parliament 
to vote supplies, money for carrying on the govern- 
ment had to be obtained by other means, and 
Charles levied taxes at his pleasure. One of these 
taxes was known as Ship-money. It was properly a 
tax that could only be claimed from the coast towns 
in time of war, but by the advice of Laud it was now 
demanded from inland counties and towns as well. 

One country gentleman, named John Hampden, 
had the courage to refuse to pay the five dollars 
required of him. He took his stand on the law and 
custom of the country, and particularly on the Peti- 
tion of Right, which forbade the levying of taxes 
without the consent of Parliament. The case was 
tried by twelve judges, of whom seven pronounced 
in favor of the king. Hampden was condemned, 
but most people held that he was in the right, and 
the opposition to Charles grew stronger. 

Now Scotland burst into rebellion, on account 
of Laud's interference in religious matters, and at 
length it became a question of war. An English 
army was hastily got together to compel the Scots 
to obey, but the soldiers were of poor quality and 
the officers incapable. The Scots, on the other 
hand, were well drilled and thoroughly in earnest. 
Charles gave way without fighting, and promised 
that matters should be settled by a parliament. 



264 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

But the Parliament would do nothing for the 
king until he had removed the grievances of which 
they complained. Rather than yield, he dissolved 
Parliament, and prepared again for war with Scot- 
land. Wentworth, now Earl of Strafford, came 
over from Ireland to help him ; but the Scots 
invaded England, and drove back an English force 
which opposed them. 

It was clear that another parliament must be 
called, either to satisfy the demands of the Scots 
with regard to their religion, or to provide means 
for fighting them. Accordingly, Charles issued a 
summons for a new parliament. It met on Novem- 
ber 3, 1640, and is known in history as the Long 
Parliament, for it was not finally dispersed for 
twenty years. 

Meanwhile Parliament, made bold by the support 
of the people, brought Strafford and Laud to trial. 
Strafford was charged with political tyranny, and 
Laud with religious tyranny. They were con- 
demned and executed, meeting their fate with a 
courage worthy of a better cause. 



IV. AFFAIR OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 

When Strafford was dead, the House of Com- 
mons set to work to compel Charles to govern as 
it wished. Ship-money was declared to be against 
the law, taxes were not to be levied without the 
consent of Parliament ; the Courts of Star Chamber 



AFFAIR OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 265 

and High Commission were abolished, and the cere- 
monies which Laud had restored to the church ser- 
vice were forbidden. 

About this time a terrible massacre took place in 
Ireland, where the natives rose up against the Eng- 
lish and Scotch settlers, and tortured and murdered 
them. England was filled with horror, and the king 
was blamed for the state of affairs which had pro- 
duced the massacre. 

The Commons drew up the Grand Remonstrance, 
a document in which they stated the acts of misrule 
of which they complained, and demanded certain 
changes in the government of Church and State. 
The Remonstrance was passed, after a long dis- 
cussion, by a majority of only eleven ; and when 
the king's party raised a protest against printing 
it, many of the members drew their swords, and 
bloodshed was only prevented by the influence of 
Hampden. 

Charles consented to have the Remonstrance read 
to him ; but soon after, he ordered the attorney- 
general to impeach five members of the House of 
Commons, including Pym and Hampden, as well 
as one of the peers. He charged them with a 
treasonable correspondence with the Scotch army 
during the recent troubles, and demanded their 
immediate arrest. 

Such a demand from the king was illegal, and the 
Commons merely replied that they would consider 
it. Next day Charles was persuaded by his queen 



266 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

to go down to the House himself, and arrest the 
members by force. " Go along, you coward," she 
said, " and pull those rascals out by the ears ! " 
With five hundred armed gentlemen, the king went 
down to the House of Commons. Leaving his 
company in Westminster Hall, he entered the 
House, and standing by the Speaker's chair, said 
that he must have the men whom he accused. 
There was dead silence. The king asked, " Is Mr. 
Pym here ? " but not a word was spoken in reply. 

He then turned to the Speaker, and asked 
whether the five members were present. The 
Speaker fell on his knees, and replied, " May it 
please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor 
tongue to speak in this place, except as the House 
is pleased to direct me." " Well, well," Charles 
cried angrily, " 'tis no matter ; I think my eyes are 
as good as another's." Carefully looking along the 
benches, he saw that not one of the five was present ; 
they had gone for safety to the city. With an angry 
flush in his cheeks, the baffled king said, " Since I 
see that my birds are flown, I do expect from you 
that you will send them to me as soon as they re- 
turn hither ; otherwise I must take my own course 
to find them." 

As he left the House, angry shouts of " Privilege, 
privilege ! " burst from the members. The sheriffs 
of London refused to give up the five members, 
who, a few days later, returned to Westminster by 
the river, amid the cheers of thousands of spectators 



OLIVER CROMWELL APPEARS. 267 

who lined the banks. The train-bands or volunteers 
of London took up arms in defence of the liberty of 
the Commons. The friends of Charles feared for 
their lives and fled. He had no army, and the 
queen left the country with the crown jewels to buy 
arms and raise money with which to pay soldiers. 
Charles left London, summoning all loyal subjects 




Costumes of the Nobility, Time of Charles I. 

to his aid. Nobles and gentlemen came gayly at his 
call, and on August 22, 1642, the royal standard was 
set up at Nottingham, and civil war began. 



V. OLIVER CROMWELL APPEARS. 

The country was now divided into two great par- 
ties. The west and the north were for Charles, the 
east and south, with London, for the Parliament 



268 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

On the king's side were most of the lords and coun- 
try gentlemen ; some who considered that he was in 
the right, some who thought that he was in the 
wrong, but supported him simply because he was 
their sovereign. Among them, too, were some who 
cared nothing about the rights of the quarrel, but 
were gay, gallant gentlemen, who loved fighting and 
hated the Puritans. 

On the side of the Parliament there were a few 
peers and some country gentlemen, but a great 
many townsmen and farmers. Charles had as fol- 
lowers the men of fashion and pleasure ; the Parlia- 
ment had the wealth of the trading classes at its 
back. The king's party were distinguished by their 
flowing hair, fine dress, and gay manners, and were 
known as Cavaliers ; many of his opponents cropped 
their hair close, and wore plain clothes and odd- 
looking hats, which gained for their party the scorn- 
ful name of Roundheads. 

After a skirmish in Yorkshire, Charles set out 
with his army for the south. If he could only get 
possession of London, with all its wealth, he thought 
that success would speedily crown his cause. He 
was met at Edgehill in Warwickshire by the army 
of the Parliament under the Earl of Essex. At first 
the battle inclined in favor of the Royalists ; Prince 
Rupert, the king's nephew, carried all before him 
with his fine troop of horse. Dashing in pursuit of 
the flying enemy, he left the king's foot-soldiers to 
be cut to pieces by the cavalry of the Parliament; 



OLIVER CROMWELL APPEARS. 



269 



and when he returned it was too late to win the 
battle, although the kino- had the 



advantage. 



Charles now pressed rapidly on towards London, 
and reached Brentford, only a few miles from the 
city. Here he was met by the train-bands in full 
force, — a strong, determined, well-led army. Fear- 




Oliver Cromwell. 

ing to risk a fight, the king fell back on Oxford 
and made that city his headquarters. 

There was, among the officers of the Parliamen- 
tary army, a captain of horse named Oliver Crom- 
well. Born in 1599, of good birth and means, he 
had lived since his nineteenth year the quiet life of 
a gentleman farmer. He was a member of the 
Parliament which passed the Petition of Right; but 
when that Parliament was dissolved, he returned to 



27O THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

his home at Huntingdon, and took no further part 
in public life for twelve years. He was an honest 
and upright man, a Puritan in his beliefs, but not 
so hard and stern as some of his party ; he was a 
loving son, husband, and father ; and was filled with 
a burning desire to help all who were desolate and 
oppressed. When the great struggle began, he 
raised a troop of horse for the Parliament. 

At the very opening of the war Cromwell saw at 
once what was needed to give victory to his party, 
and he mentioned his ideas to John Hampden, who 
was his cousin and who commanded a regiment of 
foot-soldiers. " Your troops," he said, " are most 
of them old, decayed serving-men, and tapsters, and 
such kind of fellows ; the king's troops are gentle- 
men's sons and persons of quality. Do you think 
that the spirit of such base, mean fellows will ever 
be able to encounter gentlemen that have honor 
and courage and resolution in them ? You must 
get men of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as 
gentlemen will go, or else you will be beaten still." 
What sort of spirit this was Cromwell tells us in 
his own words : " I raised such men as had the fear 
of God before them, as made some conscience of 
what they did; and from that day forward they 
were never beaten." 

He drilled his men constantly in the use of arms 
and the management of their horses, and kept them 
under strict discipline. If a man swore, he paid a 
fine of a shilling ; if he got drunk, he was put in the 



SUCCESS OF THE "NEW MODEL." 27 1 

stocks ; if he called one of his mates a Roundhead, 
he was dismissed. Cromwell's troop, his " lovely 
company," as he called it, became known as a splen- 
did body of sober, well-trained soldiers, and it was 
these men who gave victory to the Parliament. 

Cromwell soon gained a high place in the army. 
He threw himself heart and soul into his new work. 
He did not spare his own relatives in his zeal for 
collecting arms and stores. Once he visited his 
uncle, Sir Oliver Cromwell, with a good strong 
party of horse. He asked him for his blessing, and 
the few hours he was there he would not keep on 
his hat in his uncle's presence. But at the same 
time he not only disarmed, but stripped him of his 
plate. It was this earnest man, this " Ironside," as 
Prince Rupert called him, who was destined to 
bring ruin and destruction upon King Charles. 



VI. SUCCESS OF THE "NEW MODEL." 

For a year the war went on without decisive suc- 
cess for either party. Both Royalists and Round- 
heads won and lost battles, and famous men were 
killed on each side. 

A Scottish army now came to the assistance of 
the Parliament, but would lend its aid only on con- 
dition that the Presbyterian form of religion should 
be established in England. This was agreed to, 
and the English leaders signed a formal document 
called the Solemn League and Covenant, promising 



272 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

to support Presbyterianism. With the aid of the 
Scots, the army of the Parliament won a great vic- 
tory at Mars ton Moor, near York. Cromwell and 
his Ironsides scattered the cavalry of Prince Rupert 
like dust before them. " We never charged with- 




Cromwell leading his Ironsides to Battle. 

out routing the enemy," wrote Cromwell. " God 
made them as stubble to our swords." 

The north of England was now in the power 
of the Parliament; but the commander-in-chief of 
its army, the Earl of Manchester, was a quiet, 
meek man, who did not follow up his successes. 



SUCCESS OF THE "NEW MODEL." 273 

There was a growing division among the Parlia- 
mentary party. The Presbyterians, such as Man- 
chester, who formed the majority of the Parliament, 
wished to make terms with the king without utterly 
crushing him ; the Independents, led by Cromwell, 
thought that no peace should be made until Charles 
was thoroughly beaten. 

While there was disagreement of this kind, suc- 
cess was impossible ; Cromwell therefore carried 
through Parliament the Self-denying Ordinance, 
by which no member of either House could hold 
command in the army. At the same time the army 
was remodelled, and the " New Model," as it was 
now called, was placed under the command of Sir 
Thomas Fairfax. By means of the Self-denying 
Ordinance and the New Model, the control of the 
army was taken from the Presbyterians and given to 
the Independents ; and the war was carried on with 
more spirit and vigor. Cromwell, though a mem- 
ber of the Commons, was placed second in com- 
mand. 

The whole army was now formed on the same 
plan that Cromwell had adopted with his own Iron- 
sides, and England never had finer troops. At 
Naseby, in Northamptonshire, the New Model army 
inflicted a crushing defeat on the king, capturing 
five thousand prisoners, all his guns and baggage, 
and his private papers. Cromwell and Fairfax then 
marched from place to place, storming castles, tak- 
ing towns, and forcing Royalist armies to surrender. 



274 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

Charles wandered about the country, trying in vain 
to collect a new force large enough to take the 
field. At length he gave himself up to the Scots 
at Newark, hoping to win them over to his side. 

The Presbyterian majority of Parliament, anxious 
to bring the war to an end, offered Charles the 
terms on which they would restore him to his king- 
dom. He was to give Parliament the control of the 
army for twenty years, to sign the Covenant, and to 
support the Presbyterian form of worship. For six 
months he declined to make any definite answer to 
these demands, hoping that his enemies would quar- 
rel among themselves. Then the Scots, weary of 
his delay, gave him up to the Parliament in return 
for the payment of their war expenses, and went 
back to their own country. 



VII. FALL OF THE KING. 

What Charles had hoped for, a quarrel between 
the army and the Parliament, at length broke out 
with bitterness. The army, which consisted mainly 
of Independents, was determined to secure complete 
religious freedom ; the Parliament was equally deter- 
mined to allow no religion but the Presbyterian to 
be followed. 

When the king at last agreed to rule as a Pres- 
byterian, the Parliament ordered the army to be 
disbanded ; but the soldiers refused to disperse until 
their demands were satisfied. Then Cromwell took 



FALL OF THE KINC 275 

a bold step ; he sent Cornet Joyce, with a strong 
body of horse, to remove the king from Holmby 
House, where he was lodging under the charge of 
the commissioner of the Parliament. Having the 
king now in its power, the army. left him at New- 
market, and marched towards London. Its demand 
for an immediate settlement of the kingdom being 
refused, it entered the city in splendid array, and 
then the House of Commons yielded to its show of 
force. 

For months Cromwell tried to induce the king to 
make terms with the army ; but Charles, while pre- 
tending to be ready to discuss an arrangement, was 
really determined to yield nothing, and to get back 
all his former power. Contriving to escape from 
his guards, he sought refuge in the Isle of Wight. 
When he was again captured, and lodged in Caris- 
brooke Castle, he made a secret treaty with the 
Scots, in which he promised to establish the Pres- 
byterian worship in England for three years, and to 
put down the Independents. On these terms the 
Scots took up arms for the king. At the same 
time the Cavaliers were mustering in various parts 
of the country ; north and west and south men 
raised the cry, " For God and King Charles ! " 

Burning with anger at what they considered the 
trickery of the king, the soldiers of the Parliament 
fiercely resolved, first to vanquish the enemy, then to 
bring to trial " Charles Stuart, that man of blood," 
whose conduct had caused a renewal of the war. 



276 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

South, west, and north their generals hastened. 
Cromwell met the Scots at Preston in Lancashire, 
and in a battle lasting over three days, he cut to 
pieces a fine army three times the size of his own. 
Everywhere the Cavaliers were crushed. But when 
Cromwell hurried back to London, he found the 
Presbyterian parliament again striving to make dis- 
honorable terms with the king, and threatening the 
Independents with punishments. This he deter- 
mined to prevent. 

One morning, a regiment of foot-soldiers under 
Colonel Pride marched into Westminster Hall, and 
arrested forty-one Presbyterian members of the 
House of Commons. Next day more than sixty 
others were arrested, and " Pride's Purge," as this 
act was called, made the army the absolute master 
of the country. 

The remnant of the Commons, known as the 
" Rump," consisted of only fifty-three Independents. 
They immediately passed a resolution to bring 
Charles to justice, and appointed a High Court 
of Justice for his trial. When the Lords refused 
to take any part in it, the Commons declared that, 
being chosen by the people, they themselves held 
supreme power in the country, and that their deci- 
sions had the force of law. 

Charles was now brought to London, and on 
January 21, 1649, he was put on trial in West- 
minster Hall as a tyrant, a traitor, and an enemy of 
the people. 



LAST DAYS OF THE KING. 



277 



VIII. LAST DAYS OF THE KING. 

The proceedings of the Rump Parliament were 
entirely illegal. No subject had the right to call 
the sovereign to account for his actions ; no deci- 
sion of the House of Commons could become law 




Trial of King Charles the First in Westminster Hall. 

unless agreed to by the Lords and by the king. In 
bringing Charles to trial, the leaders of the army 
were committing a greater offence against strict law 
than ever Charles had committed. But the king had 
shown himself to be incapable of ruling wisely ; he 
had acted as a tyrant ; when he might have made a 



278 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

fair settlement, he engaged in underhand proceed- 
ings, and brought the horrors of war again on the 
country. The worst of it was that Charles believed 
himself thoroughly in the right, even when he was 
most deceitful. He thought he was justified in any 
course which would restore him to his throne and 
crush the rebels. 

Cromwell, finding that it was impossible to trust 
Charles, believed that he would be doing God's will, 
and securing happiness to the nation, by taking the 
king's life. The trial was a mockery from the begin- 
ning; it was decided beforehand that the king should 
die. When the names of the men who were to form 
the court were read out, only sixty-seven out of a 
hundred and thirty-five answered. Lady Fairfax, 
when her husband's name was called, cried out, 
" He is not here, and never will be ; you do wrong 
to name him." Many of those who had fought most 
stoutly against their king shrank from taking his 
life. 

When Charles was asked what answer he had to 
the charges brought against him, he refused to plead, 
denying that the court had any authority over him. 
On the fifth day of the trial, he was sentenced to 
death, and four days later the sentence was carried 
out. 

The scaffold was erected outside one of the win- 
dows of the king's Banqueting House at Whitehall. 
Excited crowds filled the streets ; the roofs and win- 
dows of the surrounding houses were occupied by 



LAST DAYS OF THE KING. 279 

spectators. As the unhappy king mounted the 
steps of the scaffold, many of the people, and even 
some of the rough soldiers on guard, burst into 
tears. The king's quiet fearlessness and dignity 
moved every one to pity. 

Declaring that the war had been caused by those 
who had rebelled against his authority, and that he 
was dying a martyr for his people, Charles laid his 
head on the block. At one blow it was struck off, 
and as the headsman lifted it, crying in the custom- 
ary way, " This is the head of a traitor ! " a deep 
groan rose from the multitude below. 

Charles Stuart's follies and crimes thus led him 
to a terrible end; but after his death, people's 
thoughts dwelt rather upon his good qualities than 
upon his bad ones. They remembered that in his 
home life he was one of the best men who ever wore 
the crown of England ; and that he had the misfor- 
tune to come early in life under bad influences. They 
forgot his weakness, his deceit, his wrongheadedness, 
and admired the kingly manner in which he met his 
fate. " He nothing common did, or mean, upon that 
memorable scene," wrote a poet of the time. The 
Cavaliers honored his memory as that of a martyr, 
and the nation soon learnt to hate those whom they 
called his murderers. 



THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 
I. CROMWELL'S LAST VICTORIES. 

King Charles was dead, and the chief men among 
his enemies so hated the name of king that they pro- 
nounced it treason to give any one that title. The 
House of Lords was abolished ; the country was 
declared to be a republic, under 'the title of the 
Commonwealth ; and the government was put into 
the hands of a Council of State. 

There was one man far above all others in ability 
and strength of character, and to whom the people 
looked for security and peace. That man was Oliver 
Cromwell, the victor of Marston Moor, Naseby, and 
Preston. It was soon necessary for him to put 
forth all his power in defence of the new govern- 
ment. 

The people of Ireland had risen in arms on behalf 
of Charles, the eldest son of the late king, and Prince 
Rupert had gone to their aid with a fleet. Cromwell 
instantly made ready for war ; after sternly putting 
down a mutiny among his troops, he crossed the 
Irish Channel with a small but well-trained army. 

For nine months he remained in Ireland, and made 
his name a terror throughout the land. The flower 
of the Royalist army was stationed at Drogheda, a 

fortified seaport on the Boyne. After a stout resist- 

280 



cromwell's last victories. 281 

ance the place was taken by storm, and the whole 
of the garrison, and many of the inhabitants, were 
ruthlessly massacred. A similar massacre took 
place at Wexford. Fort after fort surrendered to 
the pitiless conqueror, and the severity of his meas- 
ures speedily put an end to the rebellion. A few 
years later, hundreds of Irish landowners were 
removed from their lands, which were then given 
to English settlers. 

Having subdued Ireland, Cromwell was recalled 
to lead an army against Scotland, where Prince 
Charles had accepted the Covenant and been pro- 
claimed king. The Scottish army, under a skilled 
general, David Leslie, laid waste the south of the 
country, and took up a strong position at Edinburgh, 
from which it was impossible to dislodge it. The 
English army suffered severely from the bad weather, 
lack of food, and sickness ; and Cromwell at length, 
almost despairing of success, withdrew to Dunbar, 
to be near his ships that were lying off the coast. 
Leslie immediately posted his army on the hills 
to the south, thus cutting off Cromwell's retreat 
to England, and placing the English at such disad- 
vantage that defeat seemed certain. 

Late one evening, the Scots, impatient to secure 
the victory they believed to be theirs, began to 
move down the hill towards the shore, intending to 
attack on the English left. " The Lord hath de- 
livered them into our hands ! " cried Cromwell, as 
he saw the movement. The Scots were exposing 



282 



THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 



themselves to danger as they left their secure posi- 
tion on the hill. At dawn, September, 3, 1650, 
Cromwell fell upon them with both foot and horse, 
and, before the sun had burst through the morning 
mist that hung over the fields, the Scots were flying 
in all directions. 




Escape of Prince Charles in Disguise. 

A severe illness prevented Cromwell from follow- 
ing up his great victory at Dunbar. Meanwhile, 
Charles had collected a fresh army and made a 
dashing march into England, hoping that the Eng- 
lish Royalists would flock to his standard. Few 
obeyed his call ; and when Cromwell came up with 



CROMWELL BECOMES PROTECTOR. 283 

him at Worcester, the royal troops were disheartened 
and tired out. 

On the anniversary of the victory at Dunbar, 
Cromwell's troops forced their way into Worcester, 
after a siege of five days. With the loss of only 
two hundred men, Cromwell won a brilliant and 
decisive victory ; it was what he called his " crowning 
mercy," and the last battle that he ever fought. 

Many stories are told of the adventures of Prince 
Charles after the battle. For days he remained hid- 
den in an oak, from whose leafy shade he watched 
the Roundhead troopers as they rode about seeking 
him. Then he escaped to Bristol in the disguise of 
a servant, riding on horseback with a lady sitting on 
a cushion behind, as was then the fashion. After 
several narrow escapes, he succeeded in reaching 
France ; and he remained quietly abroad till his 
people called him back again. 



II. CROMWELL BECOMES PROTECTOR. 

When Cromwell returned to London after crush- 
ing the Royalists at Worcester, he was received as a 
popular hero ; Parliament gave him Hampton Court 
Palace as a residence, and voted him an annual sum 
of ^4000, equal to $200,000 as values now are. 

Soon, however, a conflict arose between the gen- 
eral and the Parliament. The government of the 
country had not yet been properly settled, and there 
was much discontent among the people. The Par- 



284 



THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 



liament did not now truly represent the nation, but 
it nevertheless wished to hold supreme power, and 
especially to obtain control of the army. 

Cromwell and his officers demanded a new parlia- 
ment, which would set about the reforms necessary 




Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament. 



for the good of the country. Some of the Presby- 
terian leaders of the House, while deciding for a new 
parliament, resolved to pass a bill which would allow 
the present members not only to retain their seats, 
but also to reject any new member of whom they 
might disapprove. 



CROMWELL BECOMES PROTECTOR. 285 

With a company of musketeers, Cromwell marched 
to the House, and took his seat while the bill was 
being discussed. Presently he rose and made a long 
and angry speech against it. One of the members 
complaining of his harsh language, Cromwell left his 
seat, clapped on his hat, walked up and down the 
floor of the House stamping with his feet, and cried 
out : " You are no parliament ; I say you are no parlia- 
ment ! Come, come, we have had enough of this : 
I will put an end to your prating. Call them in ! " 

Thirty of his musketeers marched in and turned 
out the members whom Cromwell called by name. 
Going up to the mace that lay on the table, " What 
shall we do with this bauble?" he cried. "Here, 
take it away ! " and gave it to a musketeer. The 
Speaker was dragged from his chair ; fifty-three mem- 
bers were turned out, Cromwell reproaching them 
with bitter words as they went. When the House 
was cleared the doors were locked. Thus was 
achieved the famous expulsion of the Long Parlia- 
ment. 

Cromwell now called a council of 140 members, — 
men chosen by himself for their " godliness." They 
began to work with such vigor, and with such im- 
prudence, that bitter opposition was aroused in the 
country, and they soon resigned their powers. A 
few days later the leading men drew up a document 
called the Instrument of Government, by which 
Cromwell was made Lord Protector. He was to 
govern with the assistance of a council, and to sum- 



286 THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 

mon Parliament every three years. Parliament alone 
was to have the power to levy taxes, and any bill 
passed by it was to become law after twenty days, 
with or without the Protectors assent. Parliament 
was to meet every year, and could not be dissolved 
until it had sat for at least five months. 

This famous document shows that Cromwell's idea 
of government was much like that of Strafford ; he 
believed in government by one person with the 
assistance of a parliament, and not in a system which 
gives Parliament the whole power. 



III. ENGLAND'S GREATNESS UNDER CROMWELL. 

For five years Cromwell was the ruler of the 
Commonwealth of England, and under his strong 
hand the country rose to a height of greatness and 
power. Trade increased, law was respected, justice 
was done ; learning and science were encouraged ; 
men were not cruelly punished for their religious 
beliefs ; taxes were not oppressive ; and the money 
of the nation was prudently spent. 

Abroad, too, England began to be feared and 
respected for her strong government. A war broke 
out with the Dutch, because England passed a Navi- 
gation Act, requiring that imports should be brought 
to the country in English vessels. The Dutch were 
then known as the carriers for the world — their ships 
carried goods for every nation, — and this Act injured 
their trade. In the war, Admiral Blake won several 



England's greatness under cromwell. 287 




Naval Engagement between Dutch and English Fleets. 



288 THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 

splendid victories over the most brilliant of Dutch 
admirals, Van Tromp and De Ruyter; and the 
peace which was concluded was to the advantage 
of England. From that time the power of the 
Dutch declined, and England gradually rose to 
the proud position of mistress of the seas. 

The haughty Spaniards again began to dread the 
daring of English seamen. Cromwell demanded 
that English merchants should be allowed to pur- 
sue their trade freely in the Spanish colonies. When 
this was refused, Cromwell sent an army to Flan- 
ders, to help France in the great war then being 
waged in the Low Countries against Spain, and the 
French generals declared that Cromwell's troops 
were the finest in the world. An English fleet was 
sent to seize San Domingo in the West Indies, in 
revenge for the seizure of English islands by Spain. 
The attempt failed, but the island of Jamaica was 
captured, and has remained ever since the chief of 
the possession of England in the West Indies. 

Meanwhile Blake had sailed to the Mediterranean, 
and bombarded Tunis, — the headquarters of the 
pirates who infested the seas, and made descents 
upon the English and Irish coasts. The forts and 
the pirate fleet were destroyed, and hundreds of 
English and Dutch captives were set free from 
slavery. Then Blake sailed for the harbor of 
Santa Cruz, in the Canaries, where the great Span- 
ish treasure-fleet had taken shelter. The harbor 
was strongly fortified, and huge ships of war guarded 



Cromwell's difficulties and death. 289 

the rich fleet within ; but in spite of shot and shell 
Blake forced his way in, sunk or burnt every ship in 
the harbor, and sailed out again in safety in the 
teeth of a gale. 

Not many weeks afterwards, part of Blake's fleet 
fell in with some treasure-ships returning to Spain 
across the Atlantic. The English fought and cap- 
tured the ships of Spain ; soon after, the Londoners 
cheered with delight as they saw thirty-eight wagons, 
loaded with the Spaniards' silver, pass through the 
streets of the city. By the aid of the English troops 
the French won brilliant successes against Spain in 
the Low Countries. Dunkirk was captured, and 
was handed over to the English in reward for their 
services. Cromwell was recognized by all Europe 
as a great statesman and a mighty prince, and the 
world was filled with the glory of England. 



IV. CROMWELL'S DIFFICULTIES AND DEATH. 

While glorious abroad and prosperous at home, 
England was not really contented and happy. The 
rule of the Puritans was too strict for the majority 
of the people : theatres were 'shut up ; innocent 
sports were forbidden ; and the beautiful service of 
the English Church, which so many of the people 
loved, was not allowed to be used. Cromwell him- 
self, serious as he was, was not so gloomy and severe 
as many of the Puritans. He loved music, and 
placed an organ in his residence at Hampton Court. 



29O THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 

He loved books, and collected a fine library; he 
prevented the destruction of some splendid pictures 
which otherwise might have been lost to the 
country. 

Like all great men, he had many enemies ; not 
only among the Royalists, but even among his own 
party. Many were jealous of his power, and some 
thought him a great tyrant. He himself believed 
that he had been called by God to rule England, 
and he could not put up with the opposition which 
Parliament sometimes raised against him. 

His first parliament, instead of applying itself to 
various important matters to which Cromwell 
directed its attention, began to wrangle about the 
mode of government. Cromwell dissolved Parlia- 
ment at once ; then, as insurrections began to spring 
up, he divided England into twelve military districts, 
which he placed under the charge of twelve major- 
generals. For twenty months no parliament met, 
and the country lay under martial law, — one of the 
very things which had been condemned in the Peti- 
tion of Right. Then Cromwell summoned a new 
parliament, which offered him the title of king. 
This he declined, because the officers of the army, 
on whom he depended, were opposed to his accept- 
ance of it. 

Soon Parliament again raised objections to the 
form of government, and was again dissolved. 
Cromwell was deeply offended by the opposition 
with which he met. " I would have been glad to 



CROMWELL S DIFFICULTIES AND DEATH. 29 1 

have lived under my woodside, to have kept a flock 
of sheep," he said, " rather than undertake such a 
government as this. I do dissolve this parliament, 
and let God be judge between you and me." 

Seven months after this speech the great Pro- 
tector was dead. The toil he had endured so bravely 
for sixteen years, the worries he had suffered during 
his few years of rule, had worn out his hardy frame. 
Four days before his death a terrible storm raged 
over the country, stripping roofs from houses, tear- 
ing up trees by the roots, and scattering the seas 
with wrecks. Mocking Cavaliers said it was the 
Prince of Darkness come to fetch away the soul of 
the regicide. While the winds swept around the 
palace of Whitehall, Cromwell was breathing his 
last prayer for his country. On the afternoon of 
September 3, his great day, the day of his tri- 
umphs at Dunbar and Worcester, the Lord Protector 
died. 



THE STORY OF GENERAL MONK. 
I. THE RESTORATION. 

George Monk was born on December 6, 1608, 
at Potheridge, in North Devon, the native county 
of so many of the bold soldiers and sailors whose 
names are famous in English history. Adopting 
the profession of soldier, Monk served for a time in 
the Dutch army. He took the side of King Charles 
at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was known 
as a brave soldier and able officer. " Honest George " 
his regiment called him. In the very first battle in 
which he was engaged, the king's army was defeated 
and Monk was taken prisoner. For three years he 
lay in the Tower of London ; and then, the king hav- 
ing been decisively beaten by the New Model army, 
Monk accepted a commission in the army of the 
Parliament. 

He became one of Cromwell's lieutenant-generals 
in the campaign in Scotland, and fought, pike in 
hand, at the head of his regiment at Dunbar. 
When peace was concluded, Monk was placed at 
the head of the army in Scotland, and became in 
fact governor of that country, ruling on the prin- 
ciple — "assist the weak inhabitants, and weaken 
the mighty." He took no part in the quarrel 

between the army and the Parliament. It was 

202 



THE RESTORATION. 



293 



enough for him to do his duty without arguing; 
his rufe was, strictly to obey those who paid him for 
his services. 

When Oliver Cromwell died, his son Richard 
was named Protector. Utterly unlike his father, he 
was a weak and indolent man. The army, which 
had been so proud of Oliver, and had been the 




General Monk. 



mainstay of his government, knew nothing of the 
new ruler; and when Richard was proclaimed Pro- 
tector at. Edinburgh, Monk's soldiers grumbled. A 
great cheer burst out when one of the troopers ex- 
claimed, " Old George for my money ; he's fitter for 
a Protector than Dick Cromwell ! " 



294 THE STORY OF GENERAL MONK. 

Monk loyally supported Richard, and assisted him 
with good advice ; but after ten months of confusion, 
due to renewed quarrels between army and Parlia- 
ment, the luckless Protector resigned office and 
retired to the Continent. All was now confusion 
in the government. Monk, watching affairs quietly 
from his post in Scotland, saw that the country was 
tired of military rule, and promised to support the 
demands of the Parliament, — by force if quiet meas- 
ures were of no avail. 

It was on the first day of January, 1660, in the 
midst of a bitter winter, that Monk began his 
famous march to London. As he passed through 
the country, people turned out to stare at him ; 
church bells rang; everybody was tired of wran- 
gling and confusion, and everybody hoped that 
England would soon have a king again. Monk 
said nothing about his intentions ; he only declared 
that he was bent on securing the welfare of his 
country. Soon after his arrival in London, the 
Long Parliament dissolved itself by its own vote, 
and a new parliament was elected. 

As soon as the members met, letters were read 
from Prince Charles, who promised, if he were 
restored, to govern with the assistance of Parlia- 
ment, to pardon those who had rebelled against his 
father, and to allow liberty in religious matters. 
Prince Charles had written at the advice of Monk ; 
and when the letters were read, a member of the 
Commons immediately moved that the proper gov- 



THE RESTORATION. 



295 



ernment of England was by King, Lords, and Com- 
mons. The motion was passed with delight, and 
the Great Rebellion was at an end. 

On the 25th of May, 1660, the fleet which was 
bringing the king back from Holland was sighted 
from Dover. Swarms of noblemen and gentlemen 




King Charles the Second. 

hurried thither, eager to pay court to their sover- 
eign. As Charles stepped from his boat upon the 
beach at Dover, Monk fell on his knee and kissed 
the king's hand. Charles raised him, and embrac- 
ing him, called him his father. 

England now had a king again, and Monk for the 



296 THE STORY OF GENERAL MONK. 

remaining ten years of his life loyally served King 
Charles the Second. Charles was grateful to the 
man who had given him his kingdom ; he made 
him a Knight of the Garter, appointed him Master 
of the Horse, and raised him to the peerage with 
the title of Duke of Albemarle. 

When the terrible Plague broke out in London, 
and king and courtiers fled for their lives, Monk 
remained, fearless as ever, in the pestilent city, and 
managed the whole affairs of the nation. The old 
general died on January 2, 1670, and was buried with 
great pomp in Westminster Abbey. 

Monk was, in a sense, the founder of the British 
army. Up to Cromwell's time there had been no 
standing army, — that is to say, no soldiers who 
were constantly paid by the state for their services. 
When war broke out, men were called from their 
farms and their workshops to fight, and returned to 
their trades when the fighting was done. Crom- 
well's army was the first standing army in England ; 
but it was also a political and religious body, which 
did not think itself bound always to obey Parlia- 
ment. It was Monk who founded and kept on foot 
a few famous regiments, separated the army from all 
political questions, and taught soldiers and their 
commanders alike the lesson contained in Tenny- 
son's lines, — 

" Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs but to do and die." 



THE STORY OF JOHN MILTON. 
I. MILTON'S LIFE. 

Three days after the birth of George Monk, there 
was born a far greater and more famous man, John 
Milton. Monk was a great soldier; Milton was a 
great poet, who showed in his own life the truth of 
his fine words, " Peace hath her victories no less 
renowned than war." John Milton was born on 
December 9, 1608, in London. His father, who 
was a money-broker, was a refined and learned 
man, and an excellent musician. He brought up 
his son to love books and music; and the boy 
became so fond of reading that he used to sit up 
till past midnight. 

Leaving St. Paul's school at the age of seventeen, 
Milton went to Christ's College, Cambridge, where 
he remained for seven years. At college he was as 
studious as he had been at home, and showed signs 
of his poetical gifts while he was yet a student. 

On leaving college, Milton went to live at Horton, 
in Buckinghamshire, where his father had settled. 
It was time for the young man to choose a profes- 
sion, but he had already made up his mind to become 
a great poet, and to compose something which the 
world would not willingly let die. This aim he 

placed before himself as a solemn duty, which would 

297 



298 



THE STORY OF JOHN MILTON. 



require for its accomplishment that he should live a 
pure life and give himself up to continued study. 
His father was wealthy, and was quite willing that 
his son should devote himself to what he had chosen 
as his life-work. 

For five years Milton lived at Horton, spending 
his time in reading and study, and finding deep en- 




John Milton. 

joyment in the song of birds and the beauty of the 
pleasant countryside. During these years he wrote 
his two beautiful poems, // Penseroso and V Allegro, 
and three others, composed for special occasions, 
Arcades, Comus, and Lycidas. 

In 1638 Milton set out on a journey through 
France and Italy, intending to proceed to Greece. 
He made a short stay in Florence and Rome, and 



MILTON S LIFE. 299 

conversed with many notable people, who admired 
his genius, but did not like his outspoken views on 
religious matters. At this time the dispute between 
Charles the First and the nation had become ex- 
ceedingly bitter. Milton, hearing of the state of 
affairs, brought his travels to an end sooner than he 
had intended. He felt that it was his duty to take 
a part in the struggle for liberty of conscience. 

" I considered it dishonorable," he wrote, " to be 
enjoying myself at ease in foreign lands, while my 
countrymen were striking a blow for freedom." He 
therefore returned to England, settling in London. 
For twenty years Milton laid aside his intention of 
writing a great poem. At the establishment of the 
Commonwealth he was appointed Latin Secretary 
to the Council of State, in which office it was his 
duty to write letters in Latin to foreign countries. 
He also wrote several pamphlets in defence of the 
Commonwealth against the attacks of Royalist 
writers, and the writing of one of these cost him 
his eyesight. He had weakened his sight by con- 
stant study; and, refusing to give up what he be- 
lieved to be his duty to his country, he became quite 
blind at the age of forty-four. But he did not give 
up his employment, which he retained until the 
Restoration of Charles the Second. 

After the Restoration two of his books were 
publicly burnt as a mark of disgrace, and he was 
kept for a short time in custody. On his release he 
took a house in Westminster, and gave himself up 



300 THE STORY OF JOHN MILTON. 

to the composition of his greatest poem, Paradise 
Lost, which appeared in the year 1667. 

Being blind, Milton could not write down his own 
verses ; but after composing them as he walked in 
his garden, or lay awake at night, he would repeat 
them aloud to some one who wrote them at his dicta- 
tion. Friends and pupils came to read to the brave 
poet. He had trained his daughters to pronounce 
the words of several languages, and sometimes they 
read to him ; though, understanding nothing of 
what they read, they did not care for the task. 

The last years of the poet were spent in quiet 
happiness. He passed his time in conversing with 
visitors, in hearing books read, in dictating his com- 
positions, and in playing on the organ and the viol. 
He died on November 8, 1674. 

Milton ranks next to Shakespeare among the 
great writers of England. Their lives present an 
interesting contrast. Shakespeare was a country 
boy, whose works show how fond he must have been 
of country life, — of rambling in the woods, noting 
the forms and colors of the flowers, and learning the 
habits of animals and birds. Milton was a town 
boy who did not live in the country until he 
reached the years of manhood ; and who, though he 
too found pleasure in country scenes, never learned 
to know nature as Shakespeare did. 

Milton spent many years at school and college ; 
indeed, did little else but study up to his thirtieth 
year. Shakespeare, on the other hand, had little 



MILTON S LIFE. 3OI 

schooling, and throughout his life never gained a 
large knowledge of books. Milton never had to 
undergo the hardships of poverty. But Shakespeare 
knew, when quite young, what it was to be poor, 
and was working hard to earn his living at the 
same age at which Milton was enjoying a life of 
leisure at Cambridge. 

Shakespeare was a cheerful, great-hearted man, 
who enjoyed fun and merriment, and had troops of 
friends who loved him for his kindliness. Milton 
was more grave in his ways of life, though it would 
be a mistake to suppose that he was a sour or 
gloomy man. He shows us, in his poems L' Allegro 
and // Penseroso, that he was not ; he loved music 
and pictures, he liked the theatre, and composed his 
poems Arcades and Comus for two grand entertain- 
ments, given with music and splendid show before 
noble ladies and gentlemen. But he was thought- 
ful and earnest, a man who liked twilight walks in 
the cool evening better than the glare of sunlight, 
and loved to stand alone, listening to the song of 
the nightingale, better than to mix with a gay com- 
pany of his fellow-men. 



THE STORY OF TWO GREAT CALAMITIES. 
I. THE PLAGUE OF LONDON. 

In the summer of the year 1665, while England 
was at war with Holland, London was attacked by 
an enemy more difficult to fight against than any 
armed force. A strange disease made its appear- 
ance in St. Giles's parish in the west, and spread 
with frightful rapidity through the city, seizing 
chiefly on the poor, but sparing none who came in 
its way. This disease was known as the Plague. 
At its first appearance, the nobles and gentry fled 
into the country, and their example was followed by 
vast numbers of the trading classes. The royal fam- 
ily left Whitehall ; and, of the government officials, 
only the brave General Monk remained in town. 

The skill of doctors seemed powerless to check 
the dreadful disease. It was assisted by the hot 
and sultry air, and by the filthy condition of the 
city. Nowadays London has wide streets, well- 
built houses, a plentiful supply of good water, and 
an excellent system of drainage. But then the 
streets were narrow, and the overhanging houses 
almost met in the centre ; the rooms were small and 
dark, and streets and houses were dirty beyond de- 
scription ; while the water was poor in quality and 

scanty in supply. 

302 



THE FIRE OF LONDON. 303 

As the disease spread, orders were given that the 
door of every house attacked should be marked with 
a red cross, and have the words " Lord have mercy 
on us ! " painted above it. No one was then allowed 
either to enter or to leave the house for a month. At 
night, a cart went the round of the streets, accom- 
panied by a man who rang a bell, and called on the 
people to bring out their dead. 

Thieves broke into the deserted houses, careless 
of their lives. Shocking deeds of sin and shame 
were committed by the worthless people who roamed 
abroad. All business ceased ; grass grew in the 
streets, the silence of which was broken only by the 
wails of plague-stricken people, or the wild shouts 
of drunken ruffians. It was four months before the 
Plague showed any signs of abatement, and not until 
the winter did people venture back into the city. 
More than a hundred thousand persons had perished, 
and for more than a year longer the disease lingered 
in various quarters. 

II. THE FIRE OF LONDON. 

London had not recovered from the ravages of 
the Plague when another calamity fell upon it. 
The Plague had destroyed human life; the Fire 
now destroyed property. About two o'clock on 
Sunday morning, September 2, 1666, a fire broke 
out in a bake-house in Pudding Lane, in a crowded 
part of the city near the Thames. A strong wind 
carried the flames to the surrounding houses, which 



304 THE STORY OF TWO GREAT CALAMITIES. 

were built of wood ; and the fire quickly spread to 
the neighboring warehouses, which contained stores 
well fitted to feed the flames. 

People were so amazed at the sudden outburst of 
the fire that they failed to do what might have been 
done to save other houses. As a writer says, " There 
was nothing heard or seen but crying out and lam- 
entation, running about like distracted creatures, 
without at all attempting to save even their goods." 

The wind grew in violence during the day, and 
the fire spread with wonderful speed. " The follow- 
ing night presented a most magnificent but appalling 
spectacle. A vast column of fire, a mile in diameter, 
was seen ascending to the clouds ; the flames, as 
they rose, were bent and broken by the fury of the 
wind. The glare of the sky, the heat of the atmos- 
phere, the crackling of the flames, and the falling of 
the houses and churches combined to fill every 
breast with astonishment and terror." 

An eye-witness wrote : " Here we saw the Thames 
covered with goods floating, and barges and boats 
laden with what some had time and courage to save. 
We saw carts carrying things out to the fields, which 
for many miles were strewed with movables of all 
sorts, and tents erecting to shelter both people and 
what goods they could get away. 

" All the sky was of a fiery aspect, like the top of 
a burning oven, and the light was seen above forty 
miles round about. The noise and cracking and 
thunder of the impetuous flames, the shrieking of 



THE FIRE OF LONDON. 



305 




Street in London during the Fire. 



306 THE STORY OF TWO GREAT CALAMITIES. 

women and children, the hurry of people, the fall 
of towers and houses and churches, was like a hide- 
ous storm. The air all about was so hot and 
inflamed that at the last one was not able -to 
approach it, but they were forced to stand still and 
let the flames burn on, which they did for near two 
miles in length and one in breadth." 

Next day the fire was still raging, and many 
streets of houses were reduced to ashes. St. Paul's 
Cathedral took fire. At length, the king ordered a 
number of houses to be blown up, in order to make 
a wide gap over which the flames would not leap. 
The wind fell, and the fire, after raging for three 
days and nights, gradually burnt itself out. ■ Besides 
the cathedral of St. Paul's, eighty-eight churches 
were burnt to the ground, and more than thirteen 
thousand houses. The Royal Exchange, and many 
other fine buildings were among the ruins ; and 
thousands of people were rendered homeless and 
slept in the fields. 

In the midst of the terror, a report arose that an 
army of French and Dutch had entered the city, 
while another rumor declared that the fire had 
been set by the Roman Catholics. Instantly there 
was uproar and tumult. The citizens seized their 
arms, and attacked every foreigner they met ; and 
troops had to be sent by the king to quell the turbu- 
lence of the mob. 

Terrible as the Plague and fire -were in their 
effects, they were in some ways a blessing. The 



THE FIRE OF LONDON. 



307 



Plague taught people the value of cleanliness. The 
fire burnt out the remnant of the Plague, and de- 
stroyed parts of the city that were really dens of 
fever. London was rebuilt, with wider streets and 




St. Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt after the Great Fire. 

better houses. In place of the old Gothic cathedral, 
Sir Christopher Wren erected St. Paul's as it now 
is, with the magnificent dome which towers above 
the smoke and din of the city. 



THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
I. JAMES THE SECOND. 

One of the greatest events in English history is 
that known as the Revolution of 1688. England 
went through a kind of revolution in the time of 
Charles the First, when the Parliament waged war 
against the king, defeated and put him to death, and 
established the commonwealth. But these events 
are not known in history as the Revolution, because 
the change of government lasted only a few years, 
and with the return of Charles the Second the old 
form of government, monarchy, was restored. 

We must now see how it came about that, forty 
years after the death of Charles the First, another 
and a greater revolution took place. This revo- 
lution did not cause the death of a king, and was 
accomplished without bloodshed ; it did not do away 
with the office of king, but it took away from all 
future kings of England the power to oppress the 
people. 

King Charles the Second reigned for twenty-five 
years, during which time the prosperity of the coun- 
try greatly increased. The king was a gay, witty, 
and careless man, with fine ability, but of a selfish 

and pleasure-loving character. He was careful, how- 

308 



THE DISPENSING POWER. 309 

ever, not to do anything to make himself generally 
disliked ; he was determined, as he said, not to go 
on his travels again, and therefore took care to keep 
on good terms with his subjects. 

When Charles died, leaving no lawful children, 
his brother James, Duke of York, became King 
James the Second. The new king was not so 
bright as his brother, and his character was as bad ; 
but he was more earnest and diligent. Unhappily 
for himself, he held the same belief which had ruined 
his father Charles the First, namely, that the king 
was absolutely above the law, and could do just as 
he pleased. 

James thought that everybody who agreed with 
him was right, and everybody who disagreed was 
wrong. He had none of his brother's skill in man- 
aging men, and he was unable to learn the lesson 
which the sad fate of his father ought to have taught 
him. 

II. THE DISPENSING POWER. 

King James soon began a course which was in the 
end to cost him his crown. In the previous reign the 
Corporation and Test Acts had been passed. These 
were laws intended to prevent any one who was not 
a member of the Church of England from serving 
as a member of Parliament, a magistrate, an officer 
in the army, or as a public official of any kind. But 
James the king thought he was above the law and 
appointed men to certain offices who did not belong 



3IO THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 

to the Church of England. When it was com- 
plained that this was against the law, he said that 
he, as king, had the right to excuse or " dispense " 
persons from obedience to the law. Now James 
had no such right, but he was unwise enough to try 
to prove that he had. When the judges told him 
that he was in the wrong, he dismissed them from 
their offices, and appointed in their places men who, 
he knew, would do whatever he wished. 

James did many other things that were contrary 
to the harsh and narrow laws which then existed. 
When the people heard of these doings of the king, 
they began to show their discontent. Riots broke 
out in various parts of the country, and to overawe 
the people James collected a great army on Houns- 
low Heath, near London. 

Blind to all signs of danger, the king now issued 
a Declaration of Indulgence, in which he gave per- 
mission to different sects in England to worship as 
they pleased, and set aside all laws against them. 
He then interfered with the universities. At Cam- 
bridge the vice-chancellor was deprived of his office 
for refusing to grant a degree to a monk. At 
Oxford, James ordered the Fellows of Magdalen 
College to elect as their president one who was not 
a member of the Church of England. When they 
refused, because the rule of the college was against 
such an appointment, they were turned out. These 
were acts of tyranny for which the king had no 
defence whatever. 



TRIAL OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 3 1 I 

III. TRIAL OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

The next proceeding of the foolhardy king was to 
issue a second Declaration of Indulgence, which he 
ordered to be read in all the churches throughout 
the country. Most of the clergy objected to this 
because it was illegal. Seven bishops, therefore, 
including the Archbishop of Canterbury, drew up 
and presented a petition to the king, in which they 
assured him of their loyalty, but declared that they 
could not advise the reading of an illegal document. 

When the Sunday came on which the Declaration 
was to be read, hardly a clergyman obeyed the king's 
order. In the churches where it was obeyed, the 
people rose in a body, and streamed out, leaving the 
ministers to themselves. James was enraged at 
the conduct of the bishops and clergy. He sum- 
moned the seven bishops before him, and demanded 
that they should comply with his wishes. On their 
refusal, he sent them to the Tower; and as the 
barge conveying them passed down the river, hun- 
dreds of voices from the banks shouted " God bless 
your lordships ! " 

The bishops were charged with having published 
a " false, malicious, and seditious libel," and were put 
on their trial in Westminster Hall on June 29, 1688. 
Among the jury was one Michael Arnold, the king's 
brewer, who was in great distress at his position. 
" Whatever I do, I am sure to be half ruined," he 
said. " If I say not guilty, I shall brew no more for 



312 



THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 



the king ; and if I say guilty, I shall brew no more 
for anybody else.'' 

The trial lasted for several hours, and it was 
night before the jury retired to consider their ver- 




Release of the Seven Bishops. 

diet. They remained locked up all night, and hours 
were spent in argument. At length, towards morn- 
ing, all were in favor of the bishops but Arnold the 
brewer, who refused to agree to a verdict of not 
guilty. He would listen to no argument, and by 



WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 313 

and by one of the jury, growing impatient, said : 
" Look at me. I am the largest and strongest of 
the twelve ; and before I find such a petition as this 
a libel, here I will stay till I am no bigger than a 
tobacco pipe." 

At six o'clock in the morning the brewer gave 
way, and the twelve jurymen, returning into court, 
gave a unanimous verdict of Not Guilty. Instantly 
the thousands of people who crowded the hall 
shouted for joy ; the cry was taken up by thousands 
outside; guns were fired; flags were run up the 
masts of ships on the Thames ; and horsemen gal- 
loped off to carry the joyful news into the country. 
James was at the camp on Hounslow Heath when 
the news reached him. Angry at the result of the 
trial, he was setting out for London, when he was 
startled bv boisterous cheers behind him. Asking 
what they meant, he got the answer : " Nothing ; the 
soldiers are glad that the bishops are acquitted." 
" Do you call that nothing ? " said James ; "so much 
the worse for them." 



IV. WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 

James had now been king for three years, and 
had disgusted the nation by his contempt for law 
and justice. But he had reached his fifty-sixth year, 
and the people hoped that when his death took place 
his grown-up daughter Mary would become queen, 
and bring contentment to the country. Less than 
three weeks before the trial of the seven bishops, a 



314 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 

son was born to James, and the hopes of the nation 
were destroyed. For the young prince would be 
brought up in his father's religion, and the people 
could only look forward to another Catholic king, 
who, they thought, would respect the law no more 
than James had done. This they were determined 
not to endure. On the very day of the acquittal of 
the seven bishops, a letter was sent to Holland, ask- 
ing the ruler of that country to come and deliver 
England from the tyrant. The ruler of Holland 
was William of Orange, who was also the husband 
of James's daughter Mary, the princess whom all 
Englishmen had hoped might be their queen. 

William accepted the invitation. He was de- 
layed for some months, but on November 5, 1688, 
he landed at Torbay, in Devonshire, and began his 
march towards London. Nobles and gentlemen 
flocked to his banner; and James, when he set out 
with his troops to meet William, was deserted by 
many of his officers and courtiers. 

Returning to London, the poor king found that 
even his second daughter, the Princess Anne, had 
left him and gone to join William. " God help me ! " 
he exclaimed ; " my own children have forsaken me." 
James now sent the queen and the baby prince to 
France ; and, fearing for his life, he tried to follow 
them on the next day. As he crossed the Thames 
he dropped the great seal into the water, hoping 
that the business of the country could not be carried 
on without that mark of royal authority. 



WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 



315 



Driving rapidly eastward, James arrived at Sheer- 
ness, where he embarked on board a small boat. 
His appearance excited the curiosity of some rough 
fishermen, who boarded the boat, stripped him of his 
money and watch, and carried him on shore, where 
he was recognized. " Let me go," he cried ; " get 




William the Third, Prinxe of Orange. 



me a boat. The Prince of Orange is hunting for 
my life. If you do not let me fly now, it will be too 
late." He was rescued and brought back to Lon- 
don. But William did not want him there. While he 
remained in England he was king. He was there- 
fore allowed to retire to Rochester, whence he 
escaped, and took ship for France. 



316 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Parliament then declared that by leaving the 
country James had " abdicated " or given up the 
government, and left the throne vacant ; and, two 
months later, the crown of England was offered to 
and accepted by William and Mary. The Revolu- 
tion was over; it put an end to the claim of the 
sovereign to be above the law, and henceforward 
every English sovereign would have to rule by the 
will of Parliament. 

Most people were glad to be rid of James, yet in 

spite of this the English people did not much like 

* 
William, because of his foreign ways and his cold 

manners, and William soon found that it was harder 
to keep his crown than it had been to win it. In- 
deed, there were many persons who wanted James 
to come back from over the sea and be king again. 
They were called Jacobites, or friends of James. 
When they drank the king's health, they would wave 
their glasses over the water-bottle, to show that they 
drank, not to William, but to the king "over the 
water." 

England, Scotland, and Ireland had the same 
king. Most of the Scottish people were glad to have 
William as their ruler; but the wild Highlanders, 
who lived among the mountains of the north and 
west of Scotland, rose in arms for King James. But 
when William's government began to give money 
to the chiefs, and to promise a pardon to those who 
would submit, they all did so except the Macdonald 
Clan, which lived in Glencoe. The chief of that 



THE WAR IN IRELAND. 3 1 7 

clan was a few days too late in taking the oath to 
obey William. Now this clan was much hated by 
the Campbells, who lived not very far away. The 
worst possible interpretation was given to the con- 
duct of the Macdonalds in the report which was sent 
to King William, so that, on reading it, he exclaimed, 
"It will be proper to root out that set of thieves ! " 

Soldiers were accordingly sent to Glencoe, and 
they stayed there as though they were friends. 
After they had been kindly entertained for more 
than a week, they suddenly rose, murdered about 
forty of the clan, and destroyed their village. 
Many more of the clansmen perished in the snows 
of winter amidst the wild country which surrounds 
their glen. This massacre of Glencoe, as it is called, 
has left a dark stain on William's reign. 



V. THE WAR IN IRELAND. 

In Ireland there was much harder fighting than 
in Scotland ; for most of the Irish did not like to see 
James II. driven from the throne and William 
become king ; and they hoped that with the help 
of James and some French officers they would keep 
him as their king, and be free from the control of 
England. James also saw that his best chance was to 
go from France to Ireland and rouse the Irish against 
William. He landed at Kinsale, and was soon at 
the head of a large army. Nearly all Ireland, ex- 
cept the northern part, owned James as king. 



3'8 



THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 



Even in the north the Irish supporters of William 
were so few that they had to take refuge within the 
walls of Londonderry. James's army followed them 
there, and expected soon to storm the weak walls of 
that city. But there were thousands of brave men 
in Londonderry who would not give in. An old 




Queen Mary. 

clergyman named Walker acted as governor, and 
kept up their spirits by his brave words and by the 
sermons which he preached in the cathedral. Several 
times the defenders drove James's troops away from 
their walls. 

At last their foes closed them all round so as to 
starve them out. Their hunger became worse and 



THE WAR IN IRELAND. 



3*9 




320 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 

worse, until they had to hunt the rats and mice for 
food, and a dog's paw was sold for more than five 
shillings. At last, when all hope seemed to be gone, 
three English ships forced their way up the river, and 
brought food to the brave defenders. So James's 
troops, after trying for over one hundred days to 
take Londonderry, had to abandon the attempt. 

In the next year (1690) William landed in the 
north of Ireland and began to march towards 
Dublin. The Jacobite army was drawn up on the 
south bank of the river Boyne, to prevent William's 
troops crossing that river. The day before the battle 
William was wounded by a ball ; but his undaunted 
spirit kept him on horseback for many hours in his 
determination to inspirit his men. 

On the next day was fought the battle of the 
Boyne. William sent some of his troops to cross the 
river higher up, so as to make the Jacobites fearful 
of being cut off from Dublin ; and most of their best 
troops were thus drawn away from the bank of the 
river. Then William's men rushed into the river, 
crossed it by a ford, and though they suffered much 
from the Irish bullets, they drove their foes away 
from the bank and scattered them in flight. 

The Irish horsemen charged bravely, but they 
could not win the day. James rode away as fast 
as he could to Dublin and thence to Kinsale, where 
he took ship for France. The Irish were enraged 
at his cowardice ; and one of their officers said to 
one of William's men, " Change kings, and we will 



THE WAR WITH FRANCE. 32 I 

fight you again." After a few more fruitless strug- 
gles, the whole of Ireland submitted to King 
William ; and unhappily the Protestants after their 
victory oppressed the Roman Catholic Irish very 
cruelly. So the old enmity lived on in that land. 



VI. THE WAR WITH FRANCE. 

The help which the king of France had given to 
James led to war with England. In the end the 
English had the best of it ; for in a great battle 
off Cape La Hogue they burned most of the 
French ships under the eyes of James and the 
French troops. When the news of this victory 
reached London, Queen Mary II. gave up the 
royal palace of Greenwich for the wounded English 
sailors ; and for a long time it was used for old and 
disabled sailors of the navy. It was the first great 
public hospital in England. 

King William was not so fortunate in his battles 
on land, which were mostly fought in Flanders. His 
fixed determination had always been to band Eng- 
land with the other Protestant states in a league 
against the great king of France, Louis XIV.; 
and, now that he was undisputed king of Great 
Britain and Ireland, he gained his end. But the 
French army was larger and better equipped than 
all the forces — English, Dutch, Spanish, and 
German — which could be used for the defence of 
Holland. Besides, William was not so able a 



322 



THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 



general as some of the French, and he was often 
beaten ; but his spirits always rose in time of 
danger. When his friends despaired he was calm 
and determined ; and he generally managed to steal 




Battle of Cape La Hogue. 

a march on his foes while they were enjoying their 
triumph. In the end he was able to hold his own, 
and to save the Netherlands from being conquered 
by the French; and then Louis XIV. made peace 
with William. 



THE CLOSE OF WILLIAM THE THIRDS REIGN. 323 
VII. THE CLOSE OF WILLIAM THE THIRD'S REIGN. 

One of the worst of William's trials was the death 
of his queen. In those days towns were not kept 
so clean as they are now ; and the practice of vac- 
cination had not yet been introduced. For these 
reasons small-pox was a terrible and generally a 
fatal scourge. It attacked Queen Mary II., and 
she soon died of it. 

William was generally stern, but he really had a 
tender heart; and he showed it now. He said to 
one of the bishops, " I was the happiest man on 
earth, and now I am the most miserable." Still he 
held up bravely ; and in the last eight years of his 
lonely life he stoutly faced the French and his secret 
foes in England. 

Many English people did not like to be ruled by 
a king who was a Dutchman and could not speak 
English properly. Indeed, William found that very 
few of his ministers and generals could be trusted. 
Some were secret friends of James, and some stole 
the public money. But when William raised to 
power some of his trusty Dutchmen, there was 
more grumbling than ever. Forty Jacobites made 
a plot to murder him as he was on his way back 
from hunting to his favorite palace, Hampton Court ; 
but one of them secretly told about the plot. So it 
ended only in several of them being executed. 

Even after this the English Parliament was very 
jealous of W T illiam, and would hardly grant him sup- 



324 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 

plies which were needed to make Louis XIV. keep 
the peace. But when James II. died in France, 
Louis at once showed that he would try to make 
James's son king of England. This enraged the 
English people, who were determined not to let 
Louis meddle in English affairs. For this and 
other reasons there was another war with France ; 
and William's last parliament raised the British 
army to forty thousand men. 

In the midst of these difficulties William had an 
accident which led to his death. He was riding in 
the park at Hampton Court, when his horse stum- 
bled over a mole-hill, threw him, and broke his 
collar-bone. William had always been weakly ; 
and after long years of hard work and anxiety he 
had no strength to recover from the shock, and he 
died in 1702. 

Few men have had so hard a life of struggle as 
William of Orange. His father died before he was 
born ; and his foes kept the young lad out of his 
rights in Holland. Nevertheless, at twenty-two 
years of age his energy brought him to the first 
place in the Dutch Republic ; and he not only freed 
his land from the French, but became the champion 
of the Protestants of Europe. At thirty-eight years 
of age he became king of England. He restored 
liberty to the people, he kept France from conquer- 
ing the Netherlands, and but for him all those of 
his faith would have been in sore straits all over 
Europe. 



THE CLOSE OF WILLIAM THE THIRDS REIGN. 325 

The career of William of Orange is a signal 
example of the influence for good which an able 
and determined man can exert on his own people 
and on those of other countries. Beginning life as 
an orphan and almost as a prisoner, he rose superior 
to the difficulties which beset his youth ; he became 
successively the liberator of Holland and of Eng- 
land, and ended his life of toil and struggle as the 
victorious champion of the cause of the liberty of 
the people. 



THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 
I. THE BALANCE OF POWER. 

John Churchill, who later became Duke of Marl- 
borough, was one of the greatest generals of all 
time. He was born in 1650 at Ashe, in Devonshire. 
Even in his youth he showed himself to be a brave 
and skilful officer, and when he served with the 
Royal Guards in France he was publicly thanked 
for his ability and energy. 

The French knew him as " the handsome Eng- 
lishman." It was only natural that he should make 
friends on all sides, and many grand presents were 
made to him. Unfortunately, this made him too 
fond of money, and he often stooped to mean and 
underhand actions to further his interests. Thus, 
though he was advanced to favor by James II. for 
putting down a revolt, he deserted to William of 
Orange when he seemed likely to become king. 
For this William gave him the title of Earl of Marl- 
borough, and soon sent him to the Netherlands to 
lead the British troops against the French. But 
Marlborough soon began working in a treacherous 
way for James II., and against William III. For 
this treachery he was brought back to England, and 
was imprisoned in the Tower for a time. Yet he 
was finally pardoned, and again was sent to fight 

326 



THE BALANCE OF POWER. 



327 



was no other general who 



the French ; for there 

could hope to beat the foes of England. 

William III. had had hard work to keep the great 
king of France, Louis XIV., from conquering Hol- 
land. But just before William III. died, the king 
of France had become still more powerful than he 




John, Duke of Marlborough. 

had been before. Louis had long ago married a 
princess of the Spanish royal family, so that his 
grandson had a claim to the crown of Spain. The 
king of Spain had no children of his own, and 
when he died he left his many lands to the grand- 
son of the king of France. This young man, 



328 



THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 



Philip V., was to govern not only Spain and her 
vast colonies in America, but also a great part of 
Italy, and the Spanish Netherlands, which we now 
call Belgium. As he was a grandson of the king 
of France, he would be a close ally of France. 
Men began to ask what would happen if nearly 




Queen Anne. 



half Europe was governed by the same family. The 
English ambassador at Paris wrote : " I fear that in 
a few years France will be master of us all." This 
Marlborough prevented. He restored the balance 
of power, that is, he prevented any one country 
from growing so strong as to control the others. • 



THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM 329 

When William III. died, the Princess Anne, who 
was the second daughter of James II., became queen 
of England. The new queen was at first very fond 
of Marlborough's wife, and they used to write to 
each other as bosom friends. Neither Anne nor the 
greater part of the English people looked with much 
favor on the war with France, but Marlborough was 
kept in his command, and was made duke. 



II. THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 

Marlborough had command of the British and 
Dutch troops in the Netherlands, but the Dutch 
officers and advisers were timid. As Marlborough 
always wanted to strike quick and hard at the 
French, he was often almost in despair. It was 
like putting a race-horse and a mule to draw the 
same carriage. But, fortunately, Marlborough had 
a very good temper. His favorite motto was 
" Patience will overcome all things," and by his 
winning speech he generally got his way. 

In the first two campaigns he showed his skill 
and energy by taking five fortresses from the French 
and Spaniards, and thereby saved Holland from 
being conquered. The Dutch now showed how 
thankful they were to their deliverer. Once he 
and his staff were very near being captured, and the 
news got about that he had been made prisoner. 
W 7 hen he arrived in safety at The Hague, the Dutch 
people wept for joy to see him. 



3.30 THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 

But Marlborough was to do far more than save 
Holland. In his next campaigns he crushed the 
power of France, which then seemed so threatening 
to Europe. The French, with the help of the 
Bavarians, hoped to conquer the greater part of 
Germany. Marlborough made his plans secretly 
and skilfully to prevent this. He quickly led his 
troops along the bank of the river Rhine, and then, 
turning up the valley of the Neckar, he took the 
Bavarians by surprise, and defeated them on the 
bank of the Danube. The French sent a large 
army to help the Bavarians ; while Marlborough 
was joined by the Imperial troops, commanded by 
Prince Eugene, who was also a great general. 

The French and Bavarians now took their stand 
on a line of hills, in front of which was a stream 
that flowed into the Danube. The strongest part 
of their position was the village of Blenheim, which 
rises high above this stream and above the swiftly 
'flowing Danube. Soon the battle raged all along 
the line, and the French at first beat back the 
British attack on Blenheim. Then Marlborough 
ordered his soldiers merely to keep up a pretence 
of attacking this strong position, while he made his 
chief attack across the marshy ground against the 
weakest part of the enemy's line — the centre. It 
was a difficult and dangerous task to cross the 
marshy valley and the stream under the fire of the 
French and Bavarians, but at last it was done ; and 
late in the afternoon Marlborough led 8000 of his 



THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 



331 




horsemen up the opposite slope, to charge an even 
larger force of French cavalry. He routed them, 



332 THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 

and they made for the Danube, hoping to cross it 
by a ford ; but the water was too deep and the cur- 
rent too strong. Hundreds were swept away by 
the waters, and the rest surrendered to Marl- 
borough's troopers. But this was not all. The 
11,000 French foot-soldiers, who had been so 
bravely defending Blenheim, were now, by the 
flight of the French centre, cut off from their 
comrades, and had to lay down their arms. 

Altogether the French and Bavarians lost nearly 
40,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, as 
well as most of their cannons, and all their tents 
and baggage. The survivors, only some 20,000 in 
number, retreated with haste towards France. 

Such was the great victory of Blenheim, which 
was won mainly by the skill and daring of Marl- 
borough. An English officer who was in the battle 
thus describes his conduct there. " No general ever 
did behave with more composure of temper and 
presence of mind than did the duke. He was in all 
places wherever his presence was required, without 
fear of danger or in the least hurry, giving his orders 
with all the calmness imaginable." 

Thanks to Marlborough, Germany was saved 
from a French invasion, and he recovered nearly 
all the German strongholds which the enemy had 
seized earlier in the war. For these great services 
Marlborough, on his return to England, was thanked 
by Parliament. The splendid estate of Woodstock, 
near Oxford, was also given to him and to his heirs. 



MARLBOROUGH S DOWNFALL. 333 

In the next year little was done ; but in the year 
after that, when the French made an effort to regain 
ground in the Netherlands, Marlborough met and 
defeated them in the great battle of Ramillies, and 
they had to give up all the lands which they had 
held. The war dragged on for nearly three years 
more, until after a long and desperate battle at Mal- 
plaquet, Marlborough drove the French out of their 
lines; but his troops lost more heavily than the 
French. 

III. MARLBOROUGH'S DOWNFALL. 

The English people were now weary of the war, 
and, besides, Queen Anne was on very cool terms 
with Marlborough. She had had a violent quarrel 
with his wife, and dismissed her from all her high 
offices. In vain did the duke, when he came back 
to England, throw himself on his knees, begging 
the queen not to disgrace his wife. The man who 
had subdued the power of France could not bend 
the will of the resentful queen, and he himself was 
soon disgraced. It happened thus : — 

The Whig ministry which had supported him 
had become more and more unpopular ; and at last 
a Tory ministry was formed by the queen. Some 
of the new ministers, who desired to ruin Marl- 
borough, charged him with taking the public 
money, and the charges were proved to be correct. 
Marlborough's excuses were that others had done 
the same, and that he had used much of it for get- 



334 THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 

ting news about the enemy's plans. These were 
lame excuses ; and as the new ministers desired to 
ruin Marlborough, the queen soon dismissed him 
from his office. He bore his disgrace with dignity 
and manliness, and, with his duchess, retired to the 
Continent after peace was made. 

The terms of peace left England not much 
stronger, for all her triumphs. She was to keep 
Gibraltar and Minorca, which had been conquered 
in the war; and she gained Nova Scotia, the lands 
around Hudson's Bay, as well as fuller control over 
Newfoundland. The Dutch were better protected 
against France, but elsewhere Louis XIV. held his 
own. 

When George I. became king of Great Britain 
and Ireland in 1714, he restored Marlborough to 
honor; but the famous general never returned to 
active service, and after some years of retirement he 
died in 1722. 

Marlborough was more than fifty years of age 
before he commanded a great army. A great 
French writer has said of him that he never be- 
sieged a fortress which he did not take, or fought 
a battle which he did not win. This cannot be said 
of any other general in modern times, not even of 
Wellington, 



THE REVOLT OF 1715. 

On Queen Anne's death in 1 714 the crown of 
Great Britain and Ireland went to Prince George 
of Hanover in Germany, who was great-grandson 
of King James I. He was a heavy, dull man, who 
never could speak English, and did not care for 
England. The English people put up with him 
because he was a Protestant. If the son of James 
II. had not been a Roman Catholic, he would have 
been welcomed back from exile in France, and 
gladly accepted as king. 

The Jacobites, that is, the supporters of the exiled 
prince, w 7 ere far more numerous in Scotland than 
in England. The Act of Union with England had 
caused much discontent in the northern country ; 
and when the Earl of Mar began to arouse the 
Highlanders against George I.'s rule, James the 
Pretender set sail for Scotland. 

Mar had twelve thousand men under arms for the 
Stuart prince, and soon held all Scotland north of 
the Firth of Forth. Part of his men crossed the 
Forth and marched towards the border. They 
crossed into England near Carlisle, although the 
wild Highlanders were very loath to leave Scot- 
land. Marching carelessly southward, they were 
brought to bay at Preston, in Lancashire, and after 

335 



336 THE REVOLT OF I 71 5. 

a short fight they had to surrender, some fifteen 
hundred in number. 

On that same day the rebels were defeated in 
Scotland. Mar had had to retreat before King 
George's troops, which were commanded by the 
Duke of Argyle, but finally the two armies met at 
Sheriffmuir, between Perth and Stirling. On one 
wing the Highlanders were successful, but on the 
other Argyle led his men across some frozen 
marshes, attacked the rebels on their flank, and 
put them to flight. On the whole, the royal troops 
had the best of it, and Mar retreated. 

Then, when it was too late, the Pretender landed 
farther north and called himself king. But he 
showed little spirit ; and when Argyle marched 
against him, both he and Mar fled to France. 
Many of the chief insurgents were pardoned, and 
only a few were executed. One of the condemned 
English lords escaped from prison in woman's 
clothes, which his wife secretly brought to him. 

Both England and Scotland began to settle down, 
because it was felt that the Pretender was foolish, 
selfish, and obstinate ; but neither George I. nor his 
son, George II., gained the affection of the people, 
as was proved by the startling successes won by 
the young Pretender in 1745. 



SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 

I. THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 

After the revolt of 171 5 England was at peace 
with all nations, except for a short war with Spain. 
During the many previous years of the war, mer- 
chants had feared that French men-of-war would 




The Old South Sea House. 



capture their ships, but now they felt sure that their 
ships might proceed on their voyages in safety. 
The treaty of 171 3 between Great Britain and 
Spain had also granted to English merchants the 

1 1 *7 



33$ SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 

right of sending a merchant ship every year to 
the South Seas, as the Pacific Ocean was then 
called. In consequence, English commerce and 
wealth began to increase by leaps and bounds. 

All this made people ready to venture their 
money in risky enterprises, and a number of mer- 
chants and bankers formed a great company for 
trading with the South Seas. Their schemes caught 
the public fancy, and when the South Sea Company 
promised to make all rich who trusted their money 
to it, people rushed to take its shares. They paid 
absurdly high prices for very doubtful chances of 
gain ; and men and women, rich and poor, went 
almost crazy with excitement. 

When they regained their senses they saw that 
they had paid far too dear for profits which might 
never come. Then, all at once with equal folly 
they rushed to sell their shares, but very few people 
would buy. The great South Sea Bubble burst, and 
many thousands of people were ruined. 

The only man who came forward with any plan 
for healing some of the misery was Robert Walpole, 
who was known to be the best man at figures in 
the House of Commons. He had warned people 
against trusting these schemes, and now he showed 
his skill in repairing some of the ruin. This 
brought him back to power as one of the chief 
of the king's ministers, and for the next twenty- 
one years he was the first man in England next 
to the king. 



THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 339 

He was a rough Norfolk squire, who had long 
been a strong supporter of the Whig party. He 
had a complete belief in his own ability. It was 
said of him " that his face was bronzed over by a 
glare of confidence," and he now showed great 
skill in managing men and in keeping his supporters 
contented. He was not a great orator ; but in that 




Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford. 

corrupt age members of Parliament were more often 
led by bribes than by appeals to their reason or 
to the public interest. Still, Walpole felt that in 
crushing a Jacobite plot, and in keeping first George 
I. and then George II. on the throne, he was doing 
the best for his country, and though he often used 
bad means to gain his ends, he managed to secure 
rest and quiet for the land. 



34° SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 

Thus, when the Irish were much enraged because 
they thought that a bad coinage was to be forced 
on them, Walpole gave way. Indeed, whenever it 
was possible, he did so rather than make a public 
disturbance. His favorite mottoes were, " Let sleep- 
ing dogs lie " and " Leave well alone." 

Gradually most men came to feel that Walpole 
was necessary to the peace and prosperity of the 
land. If he resigned office, the Tories would have 
come back to power, and would perhaps have 
brought back the Pretender to be king. The 
merchants liked Walpole because he preserved 
peace ; Dissenters liked him because he and the 
Whig party had put a stop to recent attempts at 
religious persecution, and George I. liked Walpole 
and the Whigs because they supported him and 
kept out the Stuarts. 



II. THE ORIGIN OF THE "PRIME MINISTER." 

As George I. spoke only German and detested 
English politics, he ceased to preside at the meet- 
ings of his ministers, at which affairs of public 
importance were discussed. Now, when men meet 
for business, there must always be some one to 
preside, otherwise there can be no order. Who 
was to direct the meetings of the ministers? Grad-V 
ually, as Walpole became more and more important, 
he directed the meetings, and was called the first, 
or prime, minister. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE "PRIME MINISTER." 34I 

Before Walpole's time the king's ministers had 
all been equal, and had had to obey only the king 
or queen ; but from that time onward the position 
of prime minister has become more and more 
important, until now he directs a good deal of the 
action of the other ministers. In fact, the whole 
ministry now acts under the general guidance of the 
prime minister, and the chief ministers form what 
is called a cabinet. So that, because George I. and 
later George II. trusted Walpole with the control 
of business for twenty-one years, this great change 
came about ; and the prime minister has latterly 
had far more to do with the public affairs of the 
British empire than the reigning sovereign. 

We must notice one other result of Walpole's 
long control of public affairs. Before his time the 
king or queen used often to forbid the passing of 
a law ; but since then this has hardly ever been 
done. George I. and then George II. trusted 
Walpole to look after their interests. Therefore it 
came to be the custom for the king always to give 
his assent to bills passed by Parliament. Thus 
the king's power became less, while that of Parlia- 
ment and of the king's ministers became greater. 
Remember, then, that in Walpole's time we see the 
,English government taking its present form. 

England owes much to Sir Robert Walpole in 
other ways. He was the first English minister 
who encouraged commerce by letting raw material 
come into the country more freely, so that England's 



342 SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 

manufactured goods became better and cheaper 
than before. He also made it easier to export 
England's manufactures, and before very long the 
value of England's exports rose from $30,000,000 
a year to more than $60,000,000. Her colonies also 
had certain privileges granted to them for their 
trade, and altogether the British empire grew 
greatly in wealth and power. 

But Walpole's success raised up many enemies 
who were jealous of him, and tried to poison the 
public mind against him. This was the case when 
he proposed a useful reform in the collection of part 
of the taxes, so as to check smuggling. Troubles 
in Scotland, and disputes between George II. and 
his son, the Prince of Wales, also added to his diffi- 
culties, and after a long fight against his foes he 
had to resign (1742). King George II. was deeply 
grieved at losing his trusty adviser, and falling on 
his neck, he kissed him and begged to see him 
frequently. 

Men soon found out how unable his foes were to 
take his place, and matters went from bad to worse 
for the next few years. After three years of retire- 
ment, death overtook the statesman who had done 
so much for the peace and prosperity of his country. 
Englishmen regretted his downfall, until a greater 
statesman came to power, William Pitt, Earl of" 
Chatham. 



"BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE." 
THE OUTBREAK IN THE NORTH. 

The Scots were still sore because their Parlia- 
ment had been united with that of England. But 
now, when England was again at war with France, 
it seemed a favorable time for the Jacobites to rise 
in revolt and try to win back the crown of Great 
Britain for the son of James II., or the Old Pre- 
tender as he was called. 

His son, the Young Pretender, was a tall, hand- 
some youth, with far more dash and energy than 
his father had shown in 1 7 1 5 ; and though the 
French government did not help him much, he 
determined to sail to Scotland, even if he landed 
there with only one follower. On the voyage he 
was nearly captured by an English man-of-war ; but 
at last he set foot on Scottish soil near Moidart in 
Inverness-shire. Even the bold clansmen were 
aghast at his rashness in attempting with but seven 
followers to overthrow a powerful king like George 
II.; but the young prince, soon called Bonnie 
Prince Charlie, charmed all hearts by his winning 
ways. As a friend said of him, " If this prince 
once sets his eyes upon you, he will make you do 
whatever he pleases." 

343 



344 



BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE. 



The Macdonalds and the brave chieftain Cameron 
of Lochiel joined his cause, and a successful skir- 
mish with King George's troops raised the spirits of 
the Highlanders. They were delighted by the tall 
athletic form of the young prince, and by his shar- 




Prince Charlie receives the Highland Chiefs on Board the Doutelle, 

ing all their perils and hardships. At night he often 
lay down among them to sleep, sheltered only by 
his plaid. 

When the royal troops were timidly withdrawn 
northwards to Inverness, the road towards the south 
was left open, and the prince marched in triumph 



THE OUTBREAK IN THE NORTH. 345 

to Perth and thence to Edinburgh. At the old 
cross of the Scottish capital he caused his father to 
be proclaimed king ; and when the young prince 
rode into Edinburgh, the streets rang with the 
cheering of the rejoicing Jacobites, many of them 
pressing round to kiss the boots of the handsome 
young cavalier. He took up his abode for a time 
at the ancient palace of Holy rood, where so many of 
his ancestors had dwelt. 

For about a year Charles held his followers to- 
gether and fought the English with varying suc- 
cess. At last the Duke of Cumberland, who was 
in command of the royal troops, forced a decisive 
issue. On Culloden Moor, not far from the town 
of Culloden, was fought the last serious battle on 
British soil. The Highlanders were hungry and 
dispirited ; and the Macdonalds, angry at not hav- 
ing the post of honor on the right wing of the 
rebel army, stood moody and motionless. Yet the 
other clansmen by their wild rush burst through 
the first line of the royal troops, only to be driven 
back by steady volleys from the second line. In 
their rage some of them stood hurling stones at 
the red-coats until a general charge of the royal 
troops swept them from the moor. No quarter 
was given to the rebels, and the severity of the 
Duke of Cumberland gained him the title of the 
Butcher. 

Charles fled for his life. When his foes were 
closing all around him, a brave young lady, Flora 



346 " BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE." 

Macdonald, helped him to escape, disguised in 
woman's clothes, to Skye. He was in the utmost 
danger, for the soldiers were searching for him every- 
where. Yet, though ,£30,000 was promised to any 
one who would capture him, not one of the poor 
clansmen betrayed him. The prince was even 
befriended for three weeks by a band of robbers, 
who hid him from his pursuers and fed him with 
the best of their food. 

At last two French vessels rescued him, and he 
left Scotland at the same spot where fourteen 
months before he had landed, flushed with the hope 
of regaining Great Britain for the Stuarts. 

King George's government strove to crush out 
the Jacobite spirit in the Highlands by putting- 
down the power of the chieftains and by forbid- 
ding the clansmen to wear their kilt and tartan. 
Later many Highland regiments were raised to 
fight for George III., and now they form some of 
the best and most devoted troops of the empire. 

Yet long after the rebellion of 1745 the clansmen 
yearned for the return of Bonnie Prince Charlie, 
and in this verse of an old Scottish song there 
breathes the devotion felt for the romantic young 
adventurer, so frank in speech and handsome in 
person, so gallant in fight and generous even to his 

foes — 

" I once had sons, but now ha'e nanc, 
I bred them toiling sairly ; 
And I wad bear them a' again, 
And lose them a' for Charlie." 



THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 

I. CLIVE GOES TO INDIA — THE SIEGE OF ARCOT. 

In i 745 it seemed as though the power of Eng- 
land was in danger from a few thousands of un- 
trained Highlanders. Yet within fifteen years she 




Robert, Lord Clive. 

acquired a mighty empire across the seas, owing to 
the exploits of Clive and Wolfe and the organizing 
genius of that great statesman, the elder Pitt. 

Before the time of Clive his countrymen in India 
held only a few factories and trading-stations on or 
near the coasts. These were Surat, Bombay, Fort 

347 



348 THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 

St. George (now known as Madras), and Fort Will- 
iam (now known as Calcutta). Bombay belonged to 
the British crown, but the other three stations 
belonged to an important trading company, the Eng- 
lish East India Company, which paid rent to the 
native rulers. It was the courage and genius of Clive 
which soon made this struggling little trading com- 
pany the possessor of large and wealthy provinces. 

Robert Clive was born in 1 725 at Market Drayton, 
in Shropshire. All through his school life he showed 
a daring and masterful spirit which nearly drove his 
parents and teachers to despair. Not knowing what 
to do with him, his parents at last sent him out as a 
clerk in the service of the East India Company. 

The French were then more powerful in the East 
than the English. In one of their inroads they cap- 
tured Madras and took all the English prisoners. 
Among them was Clive, who managed to escape in 
the disguise of a native, and became an ensign in 
the Company's little army. 

Before long peace was made between England 
and France, and Madras was restored to the Eng- 
lish Company ; but the ambition of Dupleix, the 
French governor of Pondicherry, again brought the 
English and French to war in the south of India. 
This ambitious man had formed the plan of playing 
off the rival native rulers one against the other, and 
by this means he meant to make his countrymen 
supreme in India. The bravery of the French sol- 
diers scattered in flight ten times their number of 



CLIVE GOES TO INDIA. 



349 




350 THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 

native troops, and the rule of Dupleix in the south 
of India seemed in 1750 to be firmly established. 

But the genius of Clive soon changed the whole 
aspect of affairs. He persuaded the English East 
India Company to send help instantly to one of the 
native princes against the French, and to seize the 
important town of Arcot. He led his little force 
of five hundred men quickly towards its walls. Un- 
daunted by a terrific thunder-storm which burst 
over them, Clive and his men struggled on, and the 
defenders were so astonished at foes coming against 
them in such a tempest that they fled, and left Arcot 
as the prize of Clive's valor. 

An army of ten thousand natives and a few 
French threatened him in the weak walls of Arcot, 
but Clive's daring spirit again nerved his scanty 
band to resist these overwhelming numbers, and 
Arcot was saved for the English. 



II. THE BLACK HOLE — PLASSEY. 

This and other exploits made Clive famous, and 
he was rightly looked on as the greatest English 
commander since the time of Marlborough. On 
his return to England to restore his health he was 
greeted as the saviour of the Company's rule in 
India. After a time of rest he returned to India, 
where his vigorous hand was needed more than ever. 

The Company's settlement at Fort William, now 
known as Calcutta, had been seized by the Nabob 



PLASSEY. 351 

Surajah-Dowlah, who then ruled over Bengal. This 
fickle and cruel young despot, annoyed at the grow- 
ing power of the English, had suddenly marched a 
great army against Fort William and seized it. The 
English prisoners, 146 in number, were promised 
that their lives would be spared ; but their fiendish 
captors shut them all up in a narrow cell called the 
Black Hole. Stifled by heat and by the foul air, 
they struggled in agony to get near the few small 
air-holes, and begged the native guards to fire on 
them to put them out of their misery. The guards 
only mocked at their torments. So this awful night 
wore on, the groans getting fewer and feebler, until 
the next morning only twenty-three ghastly figures 
staggered from that charnel-house. The rest had 
perished of heat, thirst, and suffocation. 

Clive sailed from the Madras coast to Fort Will- 
iam on the Hoogley, to punish Surajah-Dowlah for 
this frightful crime, dive's little force of three 
thousand men stood face to face at Plassey with 
sixty thousand foes. Even his stout heart was for a 
brief space appalled at the danger. He went apart 
to a grove to think, and at the end of an hour's 
musing he made up his mind to fight at once. 

The few British guns poured a destructive fire 
against the fifty cumbrous cannon and the crowded 
ranks opposite them. Then Clive, at the right 
moment, ordered a general charge. It swept away 
the dense and confused masses of their foes, and in 
a few minutes the plain was covered with torrents 



352 THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 

of fugitives, horse, foot, and elephants flying before 
the thin lines of red-coats. The camp, the baggage, 
cannon, and treasure of their foes were the spoils 
of the victors; and the great province of Bengal 
was conquered by this one blow (1757). 

Other successes were gained over the Dutch and 
the French; and the capture of Pondicherry in 1761 
made England as supreme in the south as she was 
in Bengal. 



III. THE STORY OF WARREN HASTINGS. 

Warren Hastings, who was to become one of 
the greatest of the governors of India, was born at 
Daylesford in Worcestershire (1732). He was left 
to the care of a distant relative who did not want to 
be burdened with him. So, as in the case of Clive, 
young Hastings was sent off to India as a clerk in 
the service of the East India Company. 

After the battle of Plassey, Clive, hearing of the 
skill of the young clerk, made him agent at the 
court of the new Nabob, Meer Jaffeer. Soon 
Hastings rose to an important post in the govern- 
ment of Bengal, and he protected the natives from 
the greed of many officers of the East India 
Company. 

In 1770 Bengal suffered from a frightful famine, 
such as happened, and sometimes still happens, 
whenever the monsoon fails, for then hardly any 
rice or corn can grow and the people starve. More 
than half of the people died ; for there were then 



THE STORY OF WARREN HASTINGS. 



353 



no railways to bring food from other parts, and no 
canals from which water could be drawn to irrigate 
the fields. These have since been made by British 
engineers, and a famine in India is not so terrible 
now as it was then. 




Warren Hastings. 



Three years after this dreadful scourge Warren 
Hastings became governor-general of India. He 
was the first who held that office and who ruled 



354 THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 

British India partly under the control of the Parlia- 
ment. But its control was very slight, and the first 
governor-general did several things which would not 
be allowed now. 

One of these was as follows : He let out on hire 
British troops to a native prince who wanted to 
conquer some of his neighbor's lands. On success 
crowning this disgraceful enterprise, a large sum 
was paid to the East India Company by the con- 
queror ; but a fertile province was made desolate by 
British troops for the sake of gain to the Company. 
This and other acts brought Hastings into trouble. 

But in the years 1 776-1 783 England's difficulties 
were so very great in America, in Europe, and also 
in India, that Hastings could not be spared. He 
had to face the great and growing power of the 
Mahrattas. These were bands of fierce and warlike 
horsemen who swept over the plains, carrying off 
plunder. They had founded some important states 
in India, and now they were likely to be helped by 
the French. The position was critical, for if French 
and Mahrattas had been allowed to act together, 
England would probably have lost her hold on 
India. 

Danger acts as a spur to great and manly natures, 
and Hastings determined to strike at once and to 
strike hard at the Mahrattas. He raised more 
sepoys, he made an alliance with a native prince, 
and sent an army to the west of India to attack the 
Mahrattas before the French could help them. 



THE STORY OF WARREN HASTINGS. 



65 




35^ THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 

A powerful native ruler in southern India, seeing 
the British busy far away to the north, seized the 
opportunity to send an army of ninety thousand men 
against Madras. A small British force was attacked 
by immense numbers of the enemy. On came the 
victors, believing that they would sweep the English 
into the sea. The brave garrison in Madras saw 
the night sky aglow with the flames of burning 
villages, and in terror they sought refuge behind the 
walls of Fort St. George. Such were the tidings 
sent off to the governor-general in Calcutta. 

Warren Hastings did not despair. He sent all 
possible troops to the south to meet this new foe, 
and with them large supplies of money for the ex- 
penses of the new war. His men were in time to 
defeat the native troops before a French fleet arrived. 
In 1783 peace was made between England and her 
enemies, and her dominion in the south of India 
was left as large as it had been before this war 

The vigor of Hastings saved British rule in India, 
but his conduct was marred by some unjust acts. 
He had been in sore need of money for the expedi- 
tion to save Madras ; and, not knowing how to get 
it by fair means, he forced the ruler of Benares to 
pay a very large sum. What was even worse, he 
forced the Princesses of Oude to give up their con- 
cealed treasures, and he had their officers tortured 
to force them to do so. The English East India 
Company had had claims in both these cases, but 
nothing can excuse the cruelty and wickedness of 



THE STORY OF WARREN HASTINGS. 357 

its governor's action in wringing these large sums 
from almost helpless native governments. 

In 1785 Hastings returned to England. He left 
her dominion in India far larger than he found it 
when he first became governor-general, and on his 
return home he received the thanks of King George 
III. and the applause of the people. 

But soon there came a change. He was brought 
to trial for his acts of extortion in India. It was 
one of the most famous trials in the world's history. 
Westminster Hall was crowded with the greatest, 
the noblest, and the fairest of the land ; and so 
great was the public interest that #250 were paid 
for a single seat there. Burke, the finest orator 
of that age, accused Warren Hastings in a noble 
speech which at times brought tears to many an 
eye. Sheridan also made a brilliant speech against 
him. But the interest died away as the trial went 
on for months and years. At last, after seven years 
(1795), Hastings was acquitted; for men by that 
time had come to feel that his actions after all had 
saved India to Britain, and the lives of thousands of 
his countrymen. He died in 18 18, having won the 
reputation of being the second founder of British 
rule in India. 



THE STORY OF GENERAL WOLFE AND THE 
TAKING OF QUEBEC. 

When we read the life of Clive we saw that 
for some time the French appeared certain of 
becoming masters of India. At about the same 
period they were making great and successful 
efforts to gain nearly the whole of North America. 
The French had long had possession of Canada. 
They also held or laid claim to the lands along 
the courses of the rivers Ohio and Mississippi. But 
this did not satisfy the ambition of Vaudreuil, the 
French governor of Canada, who formed great plans 
of building forts at strategic points on the Ohio 
and Mississippi. He hoped by these means to shut 
in the English settlers, who then had only the colo- 
nies on the coast of the Atlantic. 

Montcalm, commander of the French forces in 
America, won many tribes of Indians to help him 
in his contest with the English, and perhaps he 
would have succeeded in America, like Dupleix in 
India, if in both cases an English hero had not 
appeared to baffle French designs. Clive worsted 
Dupleix in India; Wolfe overcame Montcalm in 
North America. 

James Wolfe was born in Kent in 1726. He 
grew up to be a shy, modest young man, of a weak 

358 



THE STORY OF GENERAL WOLFE. 359 

and delicate frame, and he ever showed great kindli- 
ness and modesty of spirit. He early entered the 
army, and distinguished himself by his bravery in 
the wars against France, as also at the battle of 
Culloden. Later he showed his bravery in the war 
in North America (1758); but the generals who 
commanded the British there were incapable, and 
they were very often defeated. 

Matters were soon changed when younger and 
abler men were appointed to command there. 
Among these was Wolfe, who was selected by Pitt 
for his energy of mind and power of awakening 
enthusiasm. Three British armies were to attack 
the French in North America. Wolfe, with eight 
thousand men, sailed up the broad and noble river 
St. Lawrence to attack Quebec, 1759. 

The city of Quebec stands on a lofty cliff which 
overhangs that stately river. Many streams, which 
in England would be thought large rivers, pour 
their waters into the St. Lawrence. Some miles 
below Quebec, near one of these streams, Wolfe 
landed his men ; but, in trying to cross its rocky 
bed near a great waterfall, they were driven back by 
the French. 

Other attempts failed, and the French were so 
strongly posted in and around Quebec that it seemed 
impossible to dislodge them. Still, Wolfe and his 
officers did not give up the attempt. He knew 
that higher up the St. Lawrence above Quebec there 
were steep cliffs, which at one point were indented 



360 THE STORY OF GENERAL WOLFE. 

by a small watercourse. He thought that if his men 
could quietly make their way up at this point by a 
steep winding path, they would take the enemy by 
surprise. 

One night in September, 1759, all was ready. 
The oars were muffled so as to make no noise which 
would alarm the French ; but there were so few 
boats that Wolfe's small force had to cross in two 
divisions. While he was anxiously waiting, Wolfe 
repeated to his officers nearly the whole of Gray's 
Elegy in a Country Churchyard, and said that he 
would rather be the poet w r ho wrote that than have 
the fame of conquering the French the next day. 

At last all his men were landed, and began to 
climb the cliffs by the steep and narrow path. 
They reached the top and even dragged up one 
small cannon without the French taking alarm. 
When dawn broke, the French found nearly four 
thousand British troops on the Heights of Abraham 
just outside Quebec. 

Montcalm hastily brought his men up for battle, 
and they fought as bravely as ever ; but Wolfe's 
men were all trained soldiers, and now that they 
were on even terms with their foes, they soon gained 
ground from them. As Wolfe was cheering on his 
troops, he was severely wounded in two places. 
The dying hero was carried to the rear ; and when 
he heard the shout " They run," he raised himself 
on his elbow and eagerly asked, " Who run ? " On 
hearing the answer " The French run," he uttered 



THE STORY OF GENERAL WOLFE. 36 1 

his last words, " I die contented." The French 
commander also perished in this battle, which at 
once overthrew all his great designs. 

First Quebec surrendered, a little later the rest 
of Canada submitted, and that fine country has ever 
since been one of England's greatest colonies, and 
the French and English there now live peacefully 
side by side. On the promenade at Quebec there 
is a statue in honor of those brave and able men, 
Wolfe and Montcalm. It bears an inscription to 
this effect : — 

" Their valor gave them a united death, 
History has given them a united fame, 
Posterity, a united monument." 



WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 

The great orator and statesman, called the elder 
Pitt, to distinguish him from his famous son, was 
born in Cornwall, in 1 708. In his youth he entered 
the army, but his talents fitted him more for Parlia- 
ment than for the battlefield. He entered Parlia- 
ment as member for Old Sarum, a tiny hamlet close 
to Salisbury. 

He soon showed that he was a splendid speaker. 
His noble figure, his powerful yet musical voice, 
and his rapid vehement style of speaking carried his 
audience along with him. Moreover, men felt that 
he meant what he said. As he once whispered to 
a member of Parliament, "When once I am up on 
my feet everything that is in my mind comes out." 
His attacks against Walpole partly led to the fall of 
that great minister in 1742; and the Duchess of 
Marlborough, who had hated Walpole, left $50,000 
to Pitt for his defence of the laws of England. 

After Walpole's death, there followed a time of 
confusion in public affairs ; and though George II. 
bitterly hated Pitt, when the difficulties of the coun- 
try seemed overwhelming, he became the most im- 
portant of the king's ministers (1757). 

Times were indeed very serious for the nation. 

Scotland was still discontented, and many people 

362 



WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 363 

even in England still longed for the return of the 
Stuarts. In 1756 war had broken out with France, 
and at first England was beaten in several encoun- 
ters. Minorca, which belonged to England, was 
captured by the French; and Admiral Byng, who 
did not do his utmost to prevent its capture, was 
shot by order of a court-martial. Englishmen had 




William Pitt, First Earl of Chatham. 

begun to feel that their day was past, and one of 
the chief statesmen exclaimed in despair, " We are 
no longer a nation ! " 

As soon as Pitt became chief minister, he aroused 
the people out of their despair. " Be one people ! " 
he cried; "forget everything but the public welfare. 
I set you the example." His fiery speeches and the 



364 WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 

boldness of his acts soon made Britons feel more 
confident. An officer once said that none who went 
to talk with him could help feeling braver for it. 

When a great man like Pitt begins to control 
public affairs, there is sure to be a change for the 
better. He determined to do his utmost to help 
the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, who was 
bravely struggling against the French, Austrians, 
and Russians. Pitt could not then send many men 
to help Frederick, but he helped him with money, 
for he saw that while France was thus kept busy in 
fighting Prussia, her colonies would the more easily 
fall to England. 

Pitt did more than all the soldiers had done for 
keeping the Highlands quiet. They had vainly 
tried to crush the spirit of the Highlanders, but 
Pitt hit upon the happy thought of enlisting the 
Highlanders as soldiers, so that their courage might 
be used for their country ; and they soon showed 
their bravery in India and Canada. 

Pitt also chose young and energetic men to lead 
the new enterprises, and we have seen how wise 
he was in the choice of Wolfe for the conquest of 
Canada. This is one of the marks of a great ruler 
or statesman. He cannot do everything himself; 
but if he is a great man, he will pick out the right 
men and set them to whatever work they can do 
best. 

Soon there came news, not of defeats, but of 
victories, from all parts. Bengal was conquered in 



WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 365 

1757. Two years later came the capture of Quebec ; 
and there were two victories over the French nearer 
home. In 1756 England was in such despair that 
George II. had even thought of bringing Hanoverian 
troops over, to help to protect England from the 
French. When the king died in 1 760, he left Eng- 
land successful in all points, having conquered a 
great colonial empire from her rival. Very much 
of this was due to the energy of Pitt, and to the 
courage which he breathed into all who came near 
him. 

The next king, George III., did not like Pitt, 
and the great statesman resigned his office. A 
little later he was called back to the ministry ; 
but it was only for a short time. He did his best 
to prevent the foolish acts which turned her kins- 
men in North America against the mother country ; 
and in his later years, when he was made Earl of 
Chatham, he still raised his powerful voice on be- 
half of friendship towards those colonists. " You 
cannot conquer America," he cried. " If I were an 
American, I would never lay down my arms, never, 
never, never ! " 

The end of Pitt's life was very sad. He had 
always been a martyr to gout, and had made many 
of his finest speeches with his limbs swathed in 
flannels so as to ease the pain. Now it had grown 
much worse ; but he wished to speak once more 
on the question of America. Though his end was 
drawing near he was carried to the House of Lords, 



366 WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 

and uttered a few feeble words. It was too much 
for him, and he fell back in a swoon. He was 
carried home, and died five weeks later (May, 1778). 

When he left office in 1761, his country was 
everywhere victorious. When he died, her mis- 
takes had banded nearly all the world against her. 
We see then how much one great man can do for 
a nation, and how his vigor and wisdom may be 
missed when he no longer guides its affairs. 

In one respect his example lived on. Before his 
time, some of the king's ministers had thought it 
quite a fit thing to take large sums or bounties 
from the nation's money. Pitt was the first who 
refused to touch a penny which was not fairly and 
openly his by right. He was a patriot, and he 
saw that a land could never be strong where the 
governors were not quite straightforward in money 
matters. Since his time there has been far more 
honor and honesty in public life than there had 
been before. 

Because he brought back victory to Britain's flag 
and honor to her public life, Pitt earned the honor- 
able name of the Great Commoner. 



THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Many years before the time of which we are 
writing, Englishmen had settled on the Atlantic 
coast of North America, and England possessed 
thirteen colonies there. The most important of 
these were Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and 
Massachusetts. In course of time the colonies 
became powerful, and disputes arose between them 
and the British government. The worst dispute 
was on the subject of taxation ; it arose in the 
following manner. 

There had been, as we have seen, a long war 
between the English and the French in North 
America, which ended with the conquest of Canada 
by New England. . As this war had given safety to 
her North American colonists, the British govern- 
ment resolved to make them bear some of its cost ; 
and perhaps the colonists would have done so, had 
they been wisely treated in other respects. But the 
government also interfered with their trade and 
their customs duties ; and when the colonists re- 
sisted, it gave way on some points, but resolved 
to keep a small duty on tea imported into those 
colonies. The ministers wanted to show that 
England had the right to tax the colonists ; while 
the colonists denied that the Parliament had any 

367 



368 THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 

right to tax those who did not send members to 
Westminster. 

Then came the closing of the port of Boston, the 
fight at Lexington, and the battle of Bunker Hill. 
July 4, 1776, the colonists declared their inde- 
pendence of England. In 1777 France came to the 
assistance of the colonies. For five years the strug- 
gle continued, until English statesmen came to see 
that it was folly to prolong the war in America, 
and in 1781 England recognized the independence 
of the British colonies. 

In Europe, England boldly faced her many ene- 
mies, and her troops splendidly defended Gibraltar 
for three years against countless assaults of the 
French and Spaniards. The English Admiral 
Rodney also gained a great victory over the 
French fleet in the West Indies. So Great Britain 
ended this war against her many foes with some- 
thing like honor (1783). 

In other parts of the world she held her own 
fairly well, and even gained ground in India. 
Hardly ever had any country fought so many ene- 
mies at once, and come out of the struggle so cred- 
itably. The loss of the United States was, of 
course, a terrible blow ; but it has taught her the 
important lesson, that it is best to let her colonies 
manage their own taxation and arrange as far as 
possible their local affairs. 



WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 

I. REDUCTION OF TAXATION — THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION. 

We have read of the wonderful way in which 
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, restored his country 
in 1 757-1 760, after a time of failure and disgrace. 
His second son, also named William, was to render 
equally great services to England, after reverses far 
more terrible than those which the Earl of Chatham 
had repaired. 

This famous son of a famous father was born in 
1759 at Hayes, in Kent. He completed his educa- 
tion at the University of Cambridge, and entered 
Parliament at an unusually early age. At the time 
when he entered public life his country was in a 
sad state. England was fighting her American 
colonists as well as half the great states of Europe. 
Ireland was in almost open revolt ; a little later 
England had to make peace with her many foes 
(1783), and all these disasters wrung from the patri- 
otic young Pitt the despairing cry, " The sun of 
England's glory is set." 

Pitt had lately become Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer, and had to do his best to meet the heavy 
expenses of the wars. His clear and .convincing 
speeches and his straightforward conduct quickly 

369 



37o 



WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 



gained him a great name, and in 1 784 he took 
on his shoulders the heavy burden of being Prime 
Minister of George III. Pitt was then a youth 
of twenty-four years of age, and could get no man 




William Pitt, the Younger. 

of power and experience to work with him. " They 
are a set of children playing at ministers," said one 
of his opponents, " and ought to be sent back to 
school." The current of events at first seemed 
certain to sweep him helplessly before it. The 



REDUCTION OF TAXATION. 37 1 

country was sullen after its defeats and losses, trade 
was bad, and he had to face a hostile majority in 
Parliament itself. 

Still the young Prime Minister struggled on, 
showing that he had faith in his country and confi- 
dence in his own powers. On one occasion he said, 
" I am sure that I can save this country, and that 
nobody else can." This was no empty boast, but 
the expression of an able man's confidence in him- 
self; and every one admired his pluck, his talents, 
his clear, telling speeches, and, above all, his keen 
sense of honor. The country had recently been 
ruled by men whose honesty had not been above 
suspicion. Now it felt that the spirit of Chatham 
was breathing again in his son. After many re- 
verses in Parliament Pitt at last appealed to the 
people, and after the general election he had a 
majority of members favorable to him. 

He had already begun to put the finances in 
order, and sadly they needed it. The recent wars 
had added more than $500,000,000 to the national 
debt. The taxes were very heavy, and so were the 
duties on articles which came into the country, or 
which were exported. Pitt boldly determined to 
make these duties lighter, so as to encourage trade 
with other countries. To make up for the slight 
loss to the nation's revenue, he imposed an income- 
tax, which was not to be paid by the poor. By these 
wise and far-seeing measures Pitt soon made his 
country more prosperous than it had ever been 



372 WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 

before, and he began to reduce the national debt 
so as to be able to lessen the taxes still more. 

But all this useful work soon came to an end, 
owing to terrible events which took place in France. 
For a long time the French people had had a bad 
system of taxation and government. The poor were 
very heavily taxed, while the rich were nearly free 
from taxes. The people had little or no voice in 
public affairs, and her recent war with England had 
made France bankrupt. At last her people rose in 
their fury and overthrew the old order of things. 
They seized the Bastille, a very strong castle, which 
then stood by one of the gates of Paris : they com- 
pelled their king and queen to come to Paris, and 
in 1 793 the extreme party caused them, as well as 
many others whom they hated, to be executed. 

These events are known as the French Revolu- 
tion. Excited and ignorant men seized on power at 
Paris. War was proclaimed against neighboring 
countries, and in 1793 the young French Republic 
made war on England. Pitt had done all that he 
could to keep at peace with France ; but the violence 
and folly of the men who were in power at Paris 
brought about a war which dashed all his hopes of 
progress and prosperity. The war, which began in 
1793, lasted (with a short interval) for twenty-one 
years. At first the British were so few and so badly 
led that they were several times beaten by the 
French in the Netherlands. 

There was much discontent in England, caused 



WAR WITH FRANCE. 373 

by the burdens of the war, and by the desire of a 
few of the people to overthrow the monarchy and 
to make England a republic, like that which the 
French had made. Some severe laws were passed 
to curb the agitators, and Pitt felt that he must give 
up his plans of reform until the war was over. 

He did not show himself to be as great a war 
minister as his father had been, for he had not 
Chatham's gift of putting the right man in the right 
place. France, on the contrary, showed a marvellous 
power in raising soldiers and driving back her many 
foes. Her victories became all the more astound- 
ing when her troops were commanded by that great 
military genius, Napoleon Bonaparte. 



II, WAR WITH FRANCE — THE IRISH ACT OF UNION. 

Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica in 1769, 
and was educated in France. He so distinguished 
himself in some events of the French Revolution 
that he was named commander of the French army 
in Italy. There he defeated the Austrians in eigh- 
teen great battles, drove them back to Vienna, and 
compelled them to make peace with France (1797). 

England was now left alone to struggle against 
the mighty power of France and her allies. It was 
a terrible time for her. Though her sailors had 
beaten the French and Dutch fleets, they themselves 
were discontented, and broke out into obstinate 
mutinies. At last, when the ringleaders were 



374 



WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 



hanged, the men returned to their duty ; and, under 
Nelson, they soon showed their former devotion 
and bravery. The rest of these events will be told 
in the chapters which describe the lives of Nelson 



and Wellington. 




Napoleon at the Head of his Army crossing the Alps to Italy. 

Pitt had to face all these difficulties, as well as 
the troubles in Ireland, where the people were 
deeply excited by the events of the French Revolu- 
tion, and desired to overthrow the form of govern- 
ment which then oppressed them. Ever since the 
conquest of Ireland by William III., the Protestants 



THE IRISH ACT OF UNION. 375 

there had kept the Roman Catholics in a state of 
subjection. This led to bitter feelings, and in 1 798 
a fierce rebellion broke out, which was put down by 
the governing classes with terrible bloodshed. 

Pitt saw that this state of things must be ended, 
and in 1800 the Act of Union was passed, whereby 
the Irish members of Parliament were to sit with 
the British Parliament at Westminster, and the 
same laws were to hold good for Ireland as for 
Great Britain. He also hoped to pass a measure 
for giving to all Roman Catholics the same rights 
as the Protestants had. But George III. was very 
angry at this last proposal, and Pitt had to resign 
(1801). This was unfortunate, as Pitt was needed 
just then more than ever; but he had pledged his 
word to get justice done to the Roman Catholics, 
and as the king would not let it be done, Pitt felt 
that he must resign office. It was not until 1829 
that Roman Catholics had the right of voting and 
other political rights. 

The next ministry was a very weak one. Peace 
was made with France on unfavorable terms, but 
did not last. Napoleon had become almost com- 
plete master of France, and seemed bent on pro- 
voking England to war. After war broke out, every 
one felt that only Pitt could manage the affairs 
of England, and he became Prime Minister again 

(1804). 

Napoleon now became Emperor of the French, 
and he seemed determined to invade and conquer 



376 WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 

England. He assembled a great army of one 
hundred and twenty thousand men on the cliffs 
at Boulogne, and prepared a fleet of about twelve 
hundred small vessels and flat-bottomed row-boats 
to take them over the Straits of Dover. The 
English were much alarmed, and Pitt organized a 
national defence. In every town and village men 
began to form bands of volunteers. Beacons were 
piled upon the hill-tops of Kent so as to flash the 
news of any landing of the foe. Besides this, the 
sailors were on the alert, and they defeated every 
attempt of the French to get command of the 
English Channel. 

Napoleon, finding his plan useless, suddenly broke 
up his camp at Boulogne, marched his troops against 
those of Austria, and by terrible defeats again com- 
pelled her to sign a disastrous peace. This news 
crushed Pitt's health and spirits. He had hoped 
that the great States of Europe would conquer 
Napoleon ; but now he said to his attendants, " Roll 
up that map of Europe, it will not be wanted these 
ten years." The prophecy was to come strangely 
true. The dying statesman saw that Europe would 
for a long time be subject to Napoleon. His. keen 
foresight detected the greater disasters yet to come, 
and the truth crushed him. His release from the 
troubles of life was to him a merciful deliverance. 
Yet his last thoughts wandered off to the land 
which he had loved so well, and his last words 
were, " My country, how I love my country ! " 



THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 

Pitt, Nelson, and Wellington — these were the 
men who served their country best during the great 
war with France. Pitt was the statesman who 
guided his country's councils, Nelson gained for her 
the mastery of the seas, and Wellington did more 
than any other man to overthrow Napoleon's power. 

Horatio Nelson was the son of the rector of 
Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk, and was born there 
in 1758. In boyhood, as in the rest of his life, he 
seemed never to know what fear was. When he 
entered the navy, he hated its hard and cruel rules ; 
but he began to like the life when *he went on ad- 
venturous voyages. In due course he became cap- 
tain ; and when the great war with France began, 
he commanded a warship in the Mediterranean. 
During the siege of a town in Corsica, where he 
commanded an English battery, a French cannon 
ball struck the ground near him and drove some 
sand up into one of his eyes, so that he lost sight in 
that eye. 

The first great sea fight in which he took part 
was that of Cape St. Vincent (1797). His fleet 
numbered fifteen ships of the line and four frigates. 
That of the Spaniards was twice as strong, but the 
English were brave, skilled, and confident. They 

377 



78 



THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 



soon threw the Spanish fleet into confusion, and the 
men of Nelson's ship jumped on board an enemy's 
ship, which was closely locked with his, and captured 
it. Nelson was not content with this, but called to 
his men to take another large Spanish ship close 




Horatio, Viscount Nelson. 

by. Inspiriting his men by the words, " Victory, or 
Westminster Abbey ! " he leaped on it, and soon the 
Union Jack replaced the Spanish flag at the mast- 
head of the second prize. For this exploit the 
English Admiral Jervis embraced Nelson, and said 
he could not thank him enough. 



THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 379 

Nelson was not always successful. He failed in 
attacks on Cadiz and on Teneriffe, and at the latter 
place his right arm was torn off by a cannon ball. 
A little later he was sent to blockade the French 
fleet in Toulon, but during a storm it managed to 
get out, and sailed for Malta and Egypt ; for the 
plan of Napoleon was to conquer Egypt and then 
go on to drive the English from India. 

Nelson put a stop to these designs. After search- 
ing the east of the Mediterranean for the French 
fleet, he came up with it as it lay at anchor not far 
from the mouth of the river Nile. It was near sun- 
set, but Nelson determined to attack at once. He 
sent his ships in two lines, to sail both sides of 
the enemy's line and conquer it bit by bit. 

Darkness quickly drew on, but the whole scene 
was lit up by the flashes from the guns. The lead- 
ing French ships quickly had their masts shot away, 
and soon their largest ship, L" Orient, caught fire. 
The flames spread with fearful rapidity, throwing 
a lurid light on the desperate combat, and when the 
fire reached her powder magazine the gallant ship 
blew up. After this the firing went on for five hours, 
till out of the seventeen French ships only four 
escaped. 

Napoleon's troops had conquered Egypt, but the 
destruction of their fleet now cut them off from 
France. After a time Napoleon succeeded in escap- 
ing to France, but his army had to surrender to the 
English two years later, and Egypt was given back 



380 THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 

to Turkey. Nelson also took Malta from the French. 
So, instead of being driven from India, Britain be- 
came, thanks to Nelson, stronger than ever before 
in the Mediterranean. 

In 1 80 1 Nelson again delivered her from a great 
danger. Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark had 
formed a league against her, while she was with- 
out an ally and was still at war with France, Spain, 
and Holland. But Admirals Parker and Nelson at 
once sailed with a great fleet to Copenhagen, so as 
to seize the mouth of the Baltic, and beat the Danes 
before the Russians and Prussians could help them. 
Off Copenhagen there was a long and obstinate 
battle between Nelson's ships and the Danish bat- 
teries and armed hulks. At one time it seemed that 
Nelson must be beaten, and Parker gave the signal 
to recall him and his ships. But Nelson, in his 
determination to fight on, put his telescope to his 
blind eye, exclaiming: " I really do not see the signal. 
Keep mine for closer battle flying. That's the way 
I answer such signals. Nail mine to the mast." 

In 1803 Nelson was sent to blockade a large 
French fleet in Toulon and prevent it from sailing 
away and helping their army to cross from Boulogne 
to Kent. He spent many weary months cruising 
off Toulon. At last the French fleet put out to sea 
while Nelson's ships were away. When the admiral 
found out the enemy's course, he chased them 
across the Atlantic. He next discovered that they 
meant to sail back to the English Channel, and 



THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 



38l 




The Battle of the Nile — Destruction of the French Ship 

V Orient. 



382 THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 

sent fast-sailing ships to warn the admiralty of 
their intentions. 

Finally he came up with the French and Spanish 
fleets off Cape Trafalgar. They had thirty-three 
ships of the line and eight frigates, while Nelson's 
fleet numbered only twenty-seven ships of the line 
and four frigates. But his men were well trained, 
and were devoted to their leader ; and when Nelson 
hoisted as his signal " England expects that every 
man will do his duty," all the crews received it with 
a ringing cheer. 

The British ships, sailing in two columns, soon 
broke through and disordered the enemy's line. 
The French and Spaniards fought stubbornly, and 
Nelson's ship, the Victory, suffered terribly. A 
musket shot fired from the mast of a French ship 
pierced Nelson's back, and he fell. When taken 
below he would not let the doctor attend to him, 
but bade him see to the wounded men whose lives 
could be saved. No human skill could save him, 
and his life slowly ebbed away. He lived just long 
enough to know that his fleet had gained a com- 
plete victory, and his last words were, " Thank God, 
I have done my duty." 

This great victory of Trafalgar (October, 1805) 
made England mistress of the seas more than ever 
she had been before. In return for Nelson's bravery 
and devotion to his country, England reared a 
monument to him in St. Paul's Cathedral and the 
great column in Trafalgar Square in London. 



THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 
I. SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY IN INDIA. 

Arthur Wellesley, who was afterwards made 
Duke of Wellington, was born in Ireland in 1769, 
the same year in which his great antagonist, Napo- 
leon, was born. The family was noble and talented 
but poor, and only with difficulty was Arthur, the 
third son, sent to the great school at Eton. 

There he showed himself a bright, spirited lad, 
fond of all manly games. Indeed, he afterwards 
said that Waterloo was won in the playing-fields at 
Eton. He meant that Englishmen became strong 
and alert by taking part in football and cricket, and 
so were able to beat their foes in warfare. 

He spent a short time at a military school in 
France, and in due course he entered the navy. 
He first saw active service in Flanders in 1794, 
when he was captain of a regiment. Soon after- 
wards Wellesley was sent with his regiment to 
India, where he distinguished himself by defeating an 
able and powerful ruler in the south of India called 
Tippoo, who was hoping, with the help of the 
French, to drive out the English. Tippoo had 
about seventy thousand troops, while the English 
did not number more than twenty thousand men. 

Wellesley's next great exploits were against the 

383 



;8 4 



THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 



warlike Mahrattas. When we read about Warren 
Hastings, we learned that the Mahrattas were bands 




Sir Arthur Wellesley leading the Charge at the Battle of 

Assaye. 

of horsemen who had plundered a great part of 
India, had formed powerful States, and had then 



WELLESLEY COMMANDS IN THE PENINSULA. 385 

threatened to break down English rule. They were 
in 1800 quite as dangerous as they had been in 
the time of Warren Hastings. 

Wellesley was now made a general, and he 
advanced against a force of Mahrattas, which was 
nearly eight times as large as his own. Still, he 
remembered Plassey, and did not despair. He met 
his foes at Assaye (1803) and won a notable victory. 

Again, in the same year, Wellesley routed the 
Mahrattas, and they were glad to make peace. 
Thus he completed the work which Clive and 
Warren Hastings had begun, and there was no 
serious war in central India until the Mutiny of 

1857. 

II. WELLESLEY COMMANDS IN THE PENINSULA AND 
BECOMES DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 

But Wellesley was to win far greater fame in 
wars in Europe against the French. While he 
was strengthening England in India, Napoleon 
Bonaparte had been making himself master of 
France, and in 1804 was crowned Emperor. Again 
there was war between England and France, which 
soon enveloped all Europe in flames. Though 
Nelson drove the French off the seas, Napoleon's 
armies were so splendidly led that they defeated 
the Austrians, the Russians, and the Prussians in 
several great battles. In 1807 Napoleon was 
almost completely master of the Continent. It 
seemed as though England was to be mistress of 



386 THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 

the seas, but Napoleon was to be master of the 
land. Indeed, he hoped to be able to ruin the 
trade of England, and so compel her to accept 
peace on any terms. Thus the war became a 
struggle for life or death to the British. 

The French Emperor had resolved to have Spain 
under his control. His troops occupied most of the 
strong places in that land, and by a trick he kid- 




Oporto, showing the Bridge of Boats and Troops crossing the 

Douro, 1809. 

napped the king of Spain and kept him a captive 
in France. The Spaniards are a very proud people, 
and were determined to drive out the French troops. 
They begged England to help them in this desperate 
struggle, and Wellesley was sent out with a small 
force. 

In 1809 Wellesley for the first time met the brave 
French marshal Soult, with whom he had so many 
battles. The French in Spain had invaded Portugal, 



WELLESLEY COMMANDS IN THE PENINSULA. 387 

and now occupied the city of Oporto. Wellesley's 
army rapidly marched against them, quickly crossed 
the broad river Douro in boats, surprised Soult's 
army, put it to flight, and captured all its baggage. 
The French just managed to escape into Spain. 

Wellesley gained another victory in that year, 
1809, the battle of Talavera. As a reward for his 
skill and valor he received the title of Viscount 
Wellington, and a few years later he was called 
Duke of Wellington, as we shall call him in the 
future. 

In 1 8 10 Napoleon had no enemies to fight except 
the British, Spanish, and Portuguese troops, and he 
hoped to be able quickly to end the Peninsular War. 
He sent a great army of his best troops into Spain, 
led by one of his ablest generals. On it swept through 
Spain, and drove Wellington's smaller army before 
it through the north of Portugal. Here Wellington 
turned to bay, and the superior forces and utmost 
skill of the French failed to dislodge him. 

In 181 2 Napoleon collected an army of more than 
half a million men, and led them into Russia, to sub- 
due that vast land. He reached Moscow, but then 
had to retreat, and lost nearly all that great army 
in the winter snows. As he had recalled a good 
number of his troops from Spain to serve him in 
Russia, Wellington had not such odds to fight 
against in Spain during the campaign of 1812. 

One of the younger French generals also gave 
Wellington an opportunity of striking quick and 



3 88 



THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 



hard. The French had been making rapid marches 
to cut his men off from the fortress of Ciudad Rod- 
rigo, but near Salamanca part of their army marched 
too far from the rest of it. Wellington saw his 
opportunity and gained a great victory, taking about 




Triumphal Entry of Wellington into Madrid. 



seven thousand prisoners. This victory of Sala- 
manca made the French give up their hold on 
Madrid, and retreat towards the river Ebro. 
Wellington led his army into the Spanish capital 
amidst the wild rejoicings of the people. 



THE END OF THE GREAT WAR. 389 

The next year he commanded a large force of 
Spanish as well as English soldiers, and at Vittoria 
completely defeated the French, taking all their 
stores, money, and cannon. He then drove them 
over the Pyrenees, and forced them to give up their 
hold on Spain. 

III. THE END OF THE GREAT WAR. 

Wellington gained two more successes over his 
adversary, Soult ; then the war came to a speedy 
end, for the following reason. 

The other peoples of Europe, especially the Ger- 
mans, had risen against Napoleon's rule, had driven 
his armies from their land, and had just captured 
Paris. The French were weary of war. Napoleon 
gave up his crown, and the victorious allies de- 
termined that he should now rule only over the 
small island of Elba, off the coast of Italy. 

But there was much discontent in France with 
the ruler who took Napoleon's place, and when the 
allies began to quarrel among themselves, Napoleon 
secretly took ship, and with a few troops landed on 
the coast of France. His old soldiers soon flocked 
to his side, and he again became Emperor of the 
French for a short time. But troops began to 
march from Prussia, Austria, and Russia to de- 
throne him. 

England also sent an army to Belgium, under the 
command of Wellington, who now, for the first time, 
met the great Napoleon in battle. The French 



390 THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 

Emperor hoped to surprise Wellington's army and 
that of the Prussians. He nearly succeeded, and 
flinging a great French force against the Prussians 
at Ligny, he defeated them and drove them back. 

On that same day another desperate battle was 
going on at Quatre Bras, only a few miles away 
from Ligny. Wellington's men there had hard 
work to keep their position from being seized by 
the French. At last, when the English army was 
reenforced, the French drew off; but Wellington 
had to fall back on a position at Waterloo, nearer 
Brussels, to keep touch with his Prussian allies. , 

Wellington, with sixty-nine thousand men, of 
whom only one-third were British, now stood face 
to face at Waterloo with Napoleon's army, which 
numbered at least seventy-five thousand well-trained 
soldiers. Many of Wellington's men were raw and 
undisciplined, and he trusted to the help which 
Bluchers Prussians would bring in the coming 
battle. 

After a terrific struggle in which the flower of 
both armies were engaged, the victory was with 
Wellington who, aided by the Prussians, drove the 
French away in headlong rout. 

Napoleon fled for his life to Paris. There he 
again abdicated, and was soon taken on a British 
war-ship to the lonely island of St. Helena. Then, 
thanks to Wellington and Bliicher, Europe had 
peace, which lasted for forty years. 



ENGLAND'S SECOND WAR WITH AMERICA. 

While England was fighting Napoleon she un- 
wisely engaged in a second war with the United 
States. When Napoleon had become master of 
Europe west of Spain, he attempted to bring Eng- 
land to terms by closing all ports of Europe- to 
her ships. England retaliated by blockading these 
ports. - At that time the United States was the 
rival of England in the carrying trade of the world. 
She suffered severely and often most unjustly by 
the seizure of her ships and cargoes. 

Again England claimed the right to search 
American vessels for deserters on the ground that 
an English sailor could not lose his nationality, 
and so could be seized anywhere and made to 
perform service due the state. Sailors were in 
great demand, for England had large fleets of war 
vessels in service, and naturally the officers were 
not particular as to the nationality of the sailors 
whom they impressed. It is claimed that thousands 
of American sailors were forced to man English 
ships during the Napoleonic wars. After a bitter 
controversy war was declared (1812). On land it 
was waged about the Great Lakes for the most 
part, with much bloodshed but indifferent results. 
Washington was captured by the English and wan- 

391 



39 2 England's second war with America. 

tonly burned; but in her attempts upon New Orleans 
England suffered a terrible defeat. It was the battle 
of Bunker Hill repeated. Brave men charged across 
an open plain upon breastworks manned by men 
equally brave; but this time there was plenty of 
ammunition. 

On the ocean the Americans were brilliantly 
successful in a series of great naval battles. Their 
ships were built on finer lines and threw greater 
weight of metal than the English. On the Great 
Lakes, too, the Americans were easily victorious. 

This distressing war ended with the exhaustion 
of both parties and the tacit withdrawal on the part 
of England of the claim of her right to search 
American ships. 



STORY OF SPINNING AND WEAVING. 
I. HARGREAVES AND THE SPINNING-JENNY. 

In early days spinning and weaving were done in 
a very simple manner. The men would shear the 
sheep in June, and cleanse the wool in the streams. 
Then it would generally be put by till the long 
autumn and winter evenings, when the wife and 




A Weaver at a Hand-loom. 

daughters would take out their spinning-wheels, 
and make the rough wool into thread. 

Then the husband at his loom would weave the 
threads into cloth. In various parts of England 
there were small factories, where many men and 
apprentices were busy. The cloth turned out was 
generally coarse, and it took a long time to make. 
Besides, the spinners or spinsters of a family could 

393 



394 STORY OF SPINNING AND WEAVING. 

not make enough thread to keep one weaver going. 
So men set their wits to work to invent some con- 
trivance which would get the spinning done more 
quickly. 

Among the first to make any important advance 
was a Lancashire weaver named Hargreaves. His 
wife's spinning-wheel happened to be overturned, 
and he noticed that the wheel went on turning when 




Hargreaves's Spinning-jenny. 

it was in that position. He thought to himself, 
" Why should I not make a machine in which sev- 
eral wheels could turn in that way, and which could 
hold the pieces of wool and give them the twist 
which would make them into thread ? " 

Before long he made a machine (i 767) which spun 
several threads more quickly and finely than his 
wife and daughter could do them. He called his 
machine a jenny, after the name of his wife. But 



THE STORY OF ARKWRIGHT AND CROMPTON. 395 

his neighbors were jealous. They broke into his 
cottage and destroyed his jenny. Then he re- 
moved to Nottingham and made another better 
than the first. After a few years he made one 
which would spin thirty threads at once, and his 
machine was found to be so useful that it was soon 
used even in the village where the first jenny had 
been destroyed. Hargreaves himself died a poor 
man in 1778. 

II. THE STORY OF ARKWRIGHT AND CROMPTON. 

Another man who improved the spinning of 
thread was Richard Arkwright. After being for 



Arkwright's Spinning-jenny. 



some time a barber, he travelled about buying up 
hair, which he sold to wig-makers. In his travels 
he kept his eyes open to what was going on in 



39^ 



STORY OF SPINNING AND WEAVING. 



other trades, and at that time there had been one 
or two attempts to make a spinning-machine. He 
knew little about this machinery at first, but he 
made friends with mechanics and persuaded one of 
them to make a model of a machine with improve- 
ments which he suggested. 

He next removed to Nottingham, and after a long 
struggle with poverty he made a spinning-machine 
which was, in some respects, better than that of 




Cromfton's Spinning "Mule." 



Hargreaves. In course of time he became a wealthy 
man and was knighted by George I. 

Another man who did much to improve the 
spinning-machine was Samuel Crompton, the son 
of a farmer near Bolton, in Lancashire, a quiet, 
thoughtful lad ; when he was spinning, he used to 
think of the way in which Hargreaves's jenny could 
be improved. For a long time he worked secretly 
at his improvement. He succeeded in making a 
better machine than either Hargreaves or Ark- 



CARTWRIGHT AND THE POWER-LOOM. 397 

wright, and as it had all the good points of both, 
Crompton called his invention the mule. It made 
thread finer and firmer than had ever been made 
before, so that Crompton was soon able to make in 
his own land muslins better than those of India. 

The prosperity of Lancashire dates from the time 
of Crompton ; the industry centred there more and 
more, because the American cotton could be brought 
so readily to Liverpool. Instead of being one of the 
most backward of the counties, as it was in 1750, 
it quickly became the wealthiest and most thickly 
peopled county in Great Britain. 



III. CARTWRIGHT AND THE POWER-LOOM. 

It occurred to a clergyman, Dr. Cartwright, that 
he would try to make a machine which would weave 
cloth. At first he was laughed at, and was told 
that it was quite impossible for any machine to copy 
the movement of a weaver's hand. But Cartwright 
persevered, and after long and patient labor, he con- 
structed a machine which could weave patterns, and 
could accomplish the same result in much less time 
than handwork required. 

In 1803 the new power-loom was first tried, and 
was found to answer well. Since that time it has 
been greatly improved in many ways, so that now 
there are very few hand-looms to be found, except 
in remote parts of Scotland and Ireland. The power- 



39$ STORY OF SPINNING AND WEAVING. 

loom does the work more evenly, more quickly, and 
more cheaply. 

At first water-power was generally used to work 
the new spinning-machines and the power-looms; 
and many mills were built on swift-running rivers, 
like those of Derbyshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and 
Scotland. The cloth manufacture of the southern 
and eastern counties began to decay, because there 
are hardly any swift rivers in these parts. 

But another change was beginning to take place. 
Steam-power was found to be better than water- 
power, for the rivers would occasionally overflow 
and damage the mills, or in a dry summer there 
might not be enough water to work the machinery. 
In the early years of this century, the steam-engine 
became of more use than ever it had been before. 
You can always work a steam-engine if you can get 
plenty of coal ; and, to get the coal cheaply, manu- 
facturers began to make their factories and mills 
near the great coal-pits of Lancashire, Yorkshire, 
and the Midlands, and in the valley of the Clyde in 
Scotland. 

That is the chief reason why the great manufac- 
turing towns have grown up near the great coal- 
fields. To understand how this change came about, 
we must look at the work of the chief inventors of 
the steam-engine, Watt and Stephenson. 



THE STORY OF THE STEAM-ENGINE AND 
THE LOCOMOTIVE. 

I. JAMES WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE. 

James Watt, who did so much to improve the 
steam-engine, was born in 1736 at Greenock, a sea- 
port at the mouth of the River Clyde. As a child, 
he was very fond of tools, and of trying to improve 
all his playthings. He early made many experi- 
ments, some of which were with chemicals ; and, by 
helping his father with the ropes and sails and ship's 
tackle, he grew to be ready with his hands. 

It was decided that he should be a maker of 
instruments, such as compasses, parallel rulers, and 
the like. He went to Glasgow, and then to London, 
afterward returning to Glasgow, where he was 
employed in making instruments for the University. 
His skill soon gained him notice from the professors, 
and one of them set him to repair a model of the 
queer old steam-engines of those days. This set 
young Watt to thinking seriously about the many 
defects of this engine. Its greatest defect was the 
waste of steam, and he contrived a plan for making 
the steam do far more work than it did in the old 
engine. 

The old engines had mostly been used for pump- 
ing water out of mines; and Watt, in 1775, went to 

399 



400 THE STEAM-ENGINE AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 

the tin mines of Cornwall to improve the engines 
there. Later he made an engine to work a great 
hammer which would give three hundred blows a 
minute — a thing never dreamed of before. After 
1800 his steam-engine could be used by any one, and 
many improvements were made in it ; so that it 




James Watt. 

began to be used more and more for working all 
kinds of machinery in the new large factories. 
Watt now gave his mind to the subject of making a 
steam-boat, and a steam-engine which would draw a 
carriage ; but the honor of these inventions was to 
fall to others. 



GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 4OI 
II. GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 

George Stephenson was born in a humble 
cottage near Newcastle-on-Tyne in the year 1781. 
He was the second son of a fireman, who earned 
only three dollars a week. Little George had a 
hard time of it. He was ill-clad and poorly fed, and 
soon had to take care of his four younger brothers 
and sisters. 

One of his chief duties was to keep them from 
being run over by the wagons of coal, which were 
drawn by horses on a railway just in front of their 
cottage. There was then no thought about getting 
the coal wagons drawn by a steam-engine ; for, as 
we have already learned, the steam-engine of those 
days was only used for pumping water out of mines. 
For a long time George's father was the fireman 
who looked after the fires of the pumping-engine at 
the Wylam coal-mine. 

The boy's first employment was to look after 
some cows, for which he was paid four cents a day. 
He used his spare time in making clay models of 
the steam-engine, and with a friend even made a 
large model of the winding machine which drew 
loads up from the pit. 

When he was fifteen years old, he was glad to be 
taken on as fireman at 25 cents a day. He at once 
began to study the working of his pumping-engine, 
so as to be able to do his work well. By this means 
he became a skilled workman, and had his, pay 



402 THE STEAM-ENGINE AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 

doubled. He also went to an evening-school, where 
he was taught to read and write. 

He continued to throw all his energy into his 
work, and soon became well known as a repairer of 
pumping-engines. On one occasion the manager 
of a coal-mine came to him in despair, and said he 
would make him a man for life if he would pump 
the mine clear of water. Stephenson set the pump- 
ing-engines to rights, so that in two days it pumped 
all the water out, and the miners were able to go 
on again with their work. 

In 1 812 he was appointed engineer of the Killing- 
worth coal-mine, with a salary of $500 a year, and 
he now began to study seriously the means of get- 
ting the coal wagons drawn by a steam-engine in- 
stead of by horses. 

He felt sure that he could make an engine which 
would do its work cheaply and well. The chief 
owner of the mine, Lord Ravensworth, believed in 
him, and helped him to begin making a " travelling 
engine," as it was called. He did his best ; but his 
first engine (18 14) was not a success. 

Stephenson noticed what a waste of steam there 
was always from his engine; and he thought to 
himself, " If I can make that steam do more work, 
my engine will be more powerful." He therefore 
let the steam escape up the smoke chimney. . It 
drove out the smoke far more quickly, and gave a 
better draught to the furnace, which burnt more 
brightly and so made steam faster. 



GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 403 

Next year (1815) Stephenson made an engine 
which had this great improvement and several 
others. His new engine drew a heavy train of 
coal trucks at six miles an hour, and was found to 
do the work more cheaply than horses could do it. 
Shortly afterwards he made a railway in the county 
of Durham eight miles long. 

In those times explosions of gas or fire-damp in 
the collieries were terribly frequent. No one had 
yet devised a safety-lamp ; and the miners worked 
with open lights at constant risk to their lives. For 
if an unguarded flame comes near to that dangerous 
gas, a frightful explosion takes place and all near it 
are killed. George Stephenson, after many experi- 
ments, found out that a light might be safely used 
inside fine wire-netting; and he made a safety-lamp 
something like that which Sir Humphry Davy 
planned shortly after. The Davy lamp has some 
improvements on Stephenson's; but Stephenson's 
was invented first, and it has saved thousands of 
lives in the dangerous mines of the north of 
England. 

In 182 1 Mr. Pease of Darlington was planning a 
railway to take coal from the coal-mines near that 
town to the sea below Stockton-on-Tees. When 
Stephenson heard that the railway was about to be 
made, he and a friend went to call on Mr. Pease, 
and told him that the new engine at Killingworth 
colliery was worth fifty horses. His reasoning so 
convinced Mr. Pease, that it was decided that 



404 THE STEAM-ENGINE AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 

Stephenson's engines should be used on the new 
railway. 

Stephenson drove his new engine on the opening 
day, and it drew a long train at the rate of about 
twelve miles an hour, which was thought most won- 
derful. This railway was successful in carrying coal, 
but very few passengers travelled by it. Its only 



w 




Stephenson's Locomotive — the "Rocket," 1829. 

passenger carriages were two or three dark and un- 
comfortable vans which were drawn by horses. 
People still went generally by coach, even between 
Darlington and Stockton, and it was thought a 
great marvel when the train and the mail-coach had 
a race, and the train won by a hundred yards. 

The business men of Manchester heard about the 



GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 405 

success of this railway, and wanted to have a line 
between Manchester and Liverpool, so as to travel 
by it and get their goods more quickly. They ap- 
pointed George Stephenson as engineer for their 
railway, and he had the help of his well-trained son 
Robert. The courage and patience of the Stephen- 
sons conquered all the difficulties that were put in 
their way by those who opposed the undertaking. 

There was a race on the line, to see which of the 
different engines was the best. Stephenson's engine, 
the Rocket, was by far the best, for the others broke 
down more than once. The prize of $2500, offered 
by the directors to the maker of the best engine, 
was therefore given to Stephenson ; and at the 
opening of the line, in 1830, a passenger train 
was drawn at the speed of about thirty miles an 
hour. The world then knew that the patient 
Northumbrian was a really great man, and that his 
iron-horse was henceforth to be the king of the 
road. George Stephenson and his son had a share 
in making many other important railways. Among 
the great achievements of Robert Stephenson we 
may mention the high level bridge across the Tyne 
at Newcastle, the tubular bridges across the Conway 
River and the Menai Straits, and the immensely 
long tubular bridge across the river St. Lawrence at 
Montreal. 



THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 

Some of you have no doubt seen the change 
which has come over the life of a quiet old village 
when a great factory has been started there, or when 
a railway company has opened a station within easy 
reach of it. The steady-going village, with its hum- 
drum ways, is rudely awakened. The whirr of ma- 
chinery, or the rush of express trains, breaks the 
calm of rural life. The smoke of chimneys sullies 
the pure air, and lines of new cottages branch out 
on all sides. 

Now that will show you, on a small scale, the 
change which has been taking place on a great 
scale in many parts of England and Scotland 
during the last hundred years. Before the time 
of Arkwright, Watt, and Stephenson, there were no 
factories driven by steam power; but after their 
time, it became more and more the custom to 
make great factories where coal was abundant. So 
people began to move away from the quiet towns 
and villages of the east and south of England to the 
new manufacturing towns which sprang up in the 
north and Midlands ; for men have to move to 
the place where they can get work. 

Thus there grew up rapidly in the years 1790- 

1830, a new, smoky, grimy, manufacturing England 

406 



THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 407 

side by side with the old pastoral and agricultural 
England. And though the new towns of England 
and Scotland were growing large and prosperous, 
they had scarcely any voice in the government of 
the country : that is to say, hardly any of them 
could send members to Parliament, to make laws 
and to look after their interests. The old rural 
England still governed the new manufacturing 
England. 

Once nearly all Englishmen had had votes and 
could take part in electing a member of Parlia- 
ment; but by 1830 it had come to pass that most 
of them had no votes. In fact, many places which 
once had been prosperous, but had decayed, still 
had the right of electing members of Parliament. 
One place, Old Sarum, near Salisbury, was only a 
deserted green mound, yet it sent two members 
to Parliament. In Cornwall there were thirteen 
villages, each of which sent two members to Par- 
liament. On the other hand, great towns like 
Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford, Brighton, Green- 
wich, Leeds, Manchester, Oldham, Sheffield, Sun- 
derland, Wolverhampton, and others, returned no 
member. It was high time that this absurd system 
should be reformed. 

In 1830 King George IV. died. His brother 
William IV. came to the throne, and a new Parlia- 
ment had to be elected. Then for the first time it 
was seen how strong was the wish for a reform of 
Parliament. Lord John Russell soon brought into 



408 THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 

the House of Commons a Bill by which he pro- 
posed to take members of Parliament away from all 
places oi less than two thousand inhabitants ; and 
towns having more than two thousand but less than 
four thousand inhabitants were to have only one 
member. Large towns like those just named were 
now to return members to the House of Commons. 

A great outcry was raised against this Reform 
Bill, and it was thrown out by the House of Com- 
mons. The king was at once advised to dissolve 
Parliament, so that there might be an appeal to the 
country whether it would have reform or not. He 
did so; and the whole land rang with the cry, "The 
Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." In 
the new House of Commons there was a large 
majority of members favorable to reform ; and the 
Bill easily passed the House of Commons, only to 
be thrown out by the House of Lords. Then there 
was intense indignation through the country, and 
riots broke out in many towns. 

Again the Bill was Drought into Parliament, and 
again was rejected by the House of Lords. The 
reformers of Birmingham now threatened that they 
would march to London two hundred thousand 
strong, and compel the Lords to pass the bill. It was 
in vain that the Duke of Wellington tried to form a 
ministry and govern with a strong hand. He saw 
that it would lead to a civil war, and that it would be 
best to give way. He therefore advised the king to 
recall the Reform Ministry; and when the Bill, 



THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 



4O9 




4-IO THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 

slightly altered, was again brought before Parlia- 
ment, it became law (1832), after the most exciting 
struggle which the country had passed through 
since the coming of William of Orange. 

Those who had feared that the measure would 
lead to mob rule were soon found to be quite mis- 
taken. The Reform Bill took power away from 
many small and decayed towns, and gave it to the 
new and prosperous towns, which only wanted to 
have fair play from the government. England now 
had fewer members of Parliament than before, while 
more members were to be returned by large towns or 
counties in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The Bill 
also gave votes to more people in the counties, while 
in towns those who rented a house at $50 a year, 
or more, were to have the right of voting. This 
gave more political power to the middle classes, and 
to the more prosperous of the laboring classes, but 
it did not bring mob rule ; on the contrary, it did 
much for the cause of order. 

A great reduction was made in the number of 
days that an election might last. In former times 
elections used to go on as long as one voter an hour 
came to give his vote. Sometimes the voting went 
on for weeks, and large sums were paid for votes. 
After 1832 an election could not last more than two 
days for a county, or one day for a town. So busi- 
ness was not disturbed as at was before, and far less 
bribery and rioting took place. 

The Reform Bills of 1867-1871 and 1 884-1 885 



THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 4II 

have carried on the work begun in 1832, and now 
the House of Commons may be said to really repre- 
sent the people of Great Britain and Ireland. 

Men of all classes, from the wealthiest landowners 
to the poorest workers in the factory or the field, 
can now vote, without fear or favor, for a member 
of the House of Commons, or for any of the town 
or county governments or school boards, and bribery 
and corruption are practically unknown. The gov- 
ernment of England is chosen from the party which 
has a majority in the House of Commons, which is 
like our House of Representatives, and thus it is 
that England is to-day, though by methods slightly 
different from those employed by us, governed by 
the people, for the people. The reigning monarch 
really only registers the expression of their will. 

Enormous changes have, as you see, come about 
in this matter since the days of James I. As in Eng- 
land, so in her colonies, no English monarch, no 
English aristocracy, now tries to force upon the 
people laws they do not like, but they are left to 
make their own laws. In a word, England lets 
them run alone and govern themselves, and they are 
far more loyal to her than if she attempted to govern 
them with a strong hand and in a selfish or tyran- 
nical manner. Englishmen love freedom them- 
selves, and have learned that what is good for them 
is good for their fellow-men. 



JOHN HOWARD, THE REFORMER OF THE 

JAILS. 

We are now to read about some noble men, who 
gave up a great part of their lives to serve their 
fellow-creatures, and to improve their condition. 
They are John Howard, who reformed the prison 
system ; William Wilberforce, who did so much for 
the slaves in the English colonies ; and David Liv- 
ingstone, who gave his life for the cause of missions 
in Africa. 

When Howard was in middle life his attention 
was called to the terrible condition of the prisons of 
England. He visited them and found them ill-kept 
and dirty, while the prisoners were herded together, 
the vilest and most hardened criminals along with 
less guilty offenders, so that the worse soon corrupted 
those who were more respectable. Later he made 
a tour of the chief prisons of France, the Nether- 
lands, and parts of Germany. 

Most of the Continental jails were as bad as those 
of England, but Howard found that the prisoners 
were set to work at some employment within the 
prison walls, or were even compelled to mend roads, 
while in England they were kept cooped up in mis- 
erable dens, and were left in complete idleness. It 
was only natural that they got into worse habits 

than before, and that they fell ill of the jail fever 

412 



JOHN HOWARD, THE REFORMER OF THE JAILS. 413 

and died by hundreds. After seeing the prisons 
of Germany, Howard felt more and more strongly 
that the jail should be not merely a place of punish- 
ment, but a place of correction, where the prisoner 
might have a chance of breaking with the bad past, 
and of learning some honest employment, which 
would give him a new start in life when he came 
out of prison. 

Howard w T as not yet satisfied with his work, 
although he had already travelled more than thir- 
teen thousand miles in order to inspect English and 
foreign prisons. He found that there were still 
some out-of-the-way prisons in his own land which 
he had not visited, and he travelled about to see 
them. 

When Howard at last published his book, The 
State of Prisons, it was eagerly read. Till then 
hardly any one had thought about prisoners ; or, if 
people had thought about their miseries, they had 
only shrugged their shoulders, and said that men 
and women ought to take the more care to keep 
out of prison. And yet it was not so easy then 
as it is now to keep out of prison. Very many 
small offences were punished by long imprisonment. 
Men who set a haystack on fire, or who stole a 
horse, or goods to the value of ten shillings, were 
even hanged. Oat of 678 persons hanged in Lon- 
don during the years between 1749 and 1771, as 
many as 606 were hanged for crimes which we do 
not now punish with death. 



4 14 JOHN HOWARD, THE REFORMER OF THE JAILS. 

Howard's book set men thinking on the evils of 
the whole system of punishment. They saw that 
the law r s and the prisons, as they were then, only 
made men worse ; and since Howard's day the. laws 
have become more humane and just. Howard was 
now known all over Europe for his labors on behalf 
of prisoners, and in England he was often called the 
prisoner's friend. 

Elizabeth Fry, " the friend of women prisoners," 
effected for this unfortunate class many of the re- 
forms that Howard had first proposed for men. 



WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, THE FREER OF. 
THE SLAVES. 

In time past negro slaves had actually been sold 
in a slave-market at Bristol and other English ports. 
That was no longer allowed, but the slave-trade was 
then carried on mostly by English ships. Negroes 
from the west coast of Africa were captured by Eng- 
lish sailors. Often their villages were burnt and 
much blood was shed, before a sufficient number 
of negroes were captured to make a ship's cargo. 
Then they were driven to the shore, were forced 
on board the boats, then on the ship, and had their 
arms and feet fastened by chains. They were 
packed as close as they could lie, and all the ex- 
ercise they had was to get up and jump in their 
chains. This they were compelled to do, as it was 
thought to be a means of preserving their lives. 
But, as the voyage often lasted more than two 
months, a very large number of the poor prisoners 
generally died on the voyage, and their bodies were 
thrown overboard. Then, when the ship reached 
America or the West Indian Islands, the miserable 
survivors were sold as slaves to the planters, and 
w T ere sent to work in the sugar plantations. 

This dreadful trade in human flesh brought in 
large gains to the ship-owners, and also to the 

415 



41 6 WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. 

planters, who got more work done by these negro 
slaves than could be done by white men under that 
burning sun. So, when Wilberforce and another 
good man named Clarkson began to urge the people 
to put a stop to this trade, there was a great outcry 
raised by ship-owners and sugar merchants. 

Time after time Wilberforce brought into Parlia- 
ment a Bill for putting a stop to these evils ; but 
the Bill was thrown out, sometimes by the House of 
Commons, sometimes by the House of Lords. The 
great war with France broke out, and William Pitt, 
who had begun to do something for the freeing of 
the slaves, was quite taken up by the war. But 
after Pitt's death another great statesman, Charles 
James Fox, came into power. In 1806 he proposed 
a Bill for preventing British subjects from seizing 
and selling slaves, and it was carried by a very large 
majority. Since that time no British ships have 
been allowed to seize slaves, and every slave who 
sets foot on a British ship is a free man. 

Though slaves might not be seized and sold, they 
were still allowed to be kept in the colonies. For 
twenty-seven years Wilberforce and his friends^ 
struggled hard to get them freed. At last, just at 
the time when Wilberforce was lying on his death- 
bed, Parliament voted that £ 20,000,000 should be 
given to the slave-owners in the colonies if they 
would free their slaves ; and ever since Queen Vic- 
toria came to the throne there have been no slaves 
in any part of the British Empire. 



THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 

David Livingstone came of a Highland family, 
one of whose members was slain at Culloden fight- 
ing for the Stuarts. 

He grew up to be a God-fearing and diligent 
young man; and in 1836 he determined to become 
a medical missionary, that is, he desired to heal the 
bodies of the heathen as well as teach the Christian 
religion. To gain the knowledge which would fit 
him for his work, he became a student at the Uni- 
versity of Glasgow ; and after each term was over 
he worked in a factory, so as to earn money for his 
expenses. In Glasgow he was much respected for 
his courage and strict sense of duty. 

After further preparation in London, Livingstone 
set sail in 1840 for South Africa. That land was 
not then the flourishing colony which it now is. 
The white men were few and scattered, and the 
natives were despised and ill-treated by the Dutch 
settlers. After a time he made his way to the in- 
terior in a wagon drawn by bullocks. This long 
^and tedious journey took him over vast and almost 
arid plains, peopled by very few settlers, and still 
haunted by the wild ostrich and the hyaena, or fur- 
ther north by the lion and the elephant On arriv- 
ing at his destination, Livingstone spent a little 

417 



41 8 THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 

time at a mission station, where most of the natives 
had become Christians. But he longed to go further 
north among the tribes which were still heathen 
savages. So he travelled away northwards, settled 
down in their midst, learned their language, and 
cured many of their sick by his medicines. Little 




David Livingstone. 



by little he won their confidence, and some of them 
became Christians. 

In course of time Livingstone married the 
daughter of Dr. Moffat, who had long been a 
missionary in Africa. His wife helped him in 
many ways, especially in training the young chil- 
dren of the natives at the settlement. But he felt 



THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 419 

it to be his duty to move on and found other 
mission-stations. He also wished to explore the 
country, to see if settlements could be made, and 
peaceful means used to improve it. 

After long and weary travels, Livingstone made 
his way to the great river Zambesi. This broad 
and noble river flowed through richly wooded 
country, often among lofty hills. At one place it 
plunged down into a deep chasm, making one of 
the finest waterfalls in the world. These wonder- 
ful falls were called by Livingstone the Victoria 
Falls, in honor of Queen Victoria. 

But though the scenery was grand and beautiful, 
the natives were fierce and degraded. At one 
place Livingstone saw them hack some prisoners in 
pieces, and cast their limbs into the river to be 
devoured by crocodiles. He was unable to stop 
this cruel act, and hurried away in horror. He 
travelled along up the course of the river, and came 
across a sight which saddened him even more than 
the last. He saw gangs of slaves, fastened together 
by long ropes, being taken off to the coast to be 
sold to- the slave-dealers. He then made up his 
mind that he would do his best to bring honest 
trade into this fair country, and so put a stop to 
the traffic in human flesh. 

At last, sick and weary, he came to the Atlantic 
coast; then, turning back, he made his way down 
the course of the Zambesi to its mouth in the 
Indian Ocean. This journey had been accom- 



420 THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 

plished once previously, for a Portuguese officer 
with soldiers had travelled across Africa from ocean 
to ocean ; but Livingstone made this great journey 
unprotected, save by some peaceful native attend- 
ants, and though he passed through fierce tribes, 
he never shed any blood. He always trusted to 
kindness to melt the hearts even of savage chiefs, 
and he kept up his peaceful attitude even when a 
club was whirled over his head. For this reason, 
and for his splendid work in an unknown land, he 
received a warm welcome when he returned home 
for a time of rest. 

Before Livingstone's days the middle of Africa 
was thought to be a vast sandy desert where only 
camels and ostriches could exist. People were 
surprised to read in Livingstone's description of 
his travels that it was a beautiful land, teeming 
with countless tribes and watered by noble rivers. 
So he was honored by the universities and by 
learned societies, as well as closely questioned by 
the merchants of Manchester about the prospects 
of trade. 

Before long he returned to Africa, and made his 
way up the Zambesi and one of its tributaries. He 
was the first white man to see the great Lake 
Nyassa, on the banks of which he hoped to found a 
colony, and to open up a better sort of trade than 
the slave trade. 

Then he set himself to find the sources of the 
great River Nile. He labored long and hard, and 



THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 



421 



discovered two more large lakes. For some years 
he was quite alone in the heart of that dark conti- 




A Slave-gang on the March to the Coast. 

nent. At last, when he was in the depths of dis- 
tress, he was found and relieved by Mr. H. M. 
Stanley (1871). This adventurous traveller tells 



422 THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 

us that Livingstone looked pale, weak, and weary, 
and that his hair and beard were almost white : but 
Stanley also noticed that the natives reverenced 
him, and never passed his little hut without calling 
a blessing on his head. 

The old explorer was overjoyed at hearing the 
English tongue again after having been alone in 
Africa for so many years ; but he would not return 
home, because he felt that his work in Africa was 
not yet done. He wanted to make sure that the 
rivers which he had found were the sources of the 
Nile, and not of the Congo. But this last journey, 
made in 1873 across marshes and other fever-stricken 
parts, was too much for his weary frame, and he be- 
came weaker and weaker. He had one day's severe 
illness, and then early next morning his faithful 
native followers found him dead. He was kneeling 
as if in prayer. Thus he died, praying that Africa 
might be saved from the curse of the slave-trade. 
For that cause he had made his many travels, and 
for Africa he laid down his life. 

His native followers did what they could to pre- 
serve the body of their beloved master. They carried 
it reverently all the way to Zanzibar ; and now the 
bones of Livingstone lie in Westminster Abbey, 
where Britain buries the greatest of her heroes. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR 

The greatest war in which Great Britain has been 
engaged since Waterloo was the Crimean War, which 
arose chiefly from the following causes. 

Centuries ago a fierce and warlike people called 
the Turks had crossed from Asia into the land 
which we call Turkey. They conquered the Chris- 
tian peoples there, and were for a long time the 
terror of Europe. Gradually their power waned, 
and in the early years of this century they were 
twice conquered by the Russians. Russia hated 
the Turks because they were Mohammedans, and 
oppressed the Christian peoples of Turkey, who 
were of the same religion as the Russians. In 1853 
the powerful Czar of Russia claimed the right to 
interfere between Turkey and her Christian sub- 
jects ; and when Turkey refused to grant his claim, 
he sent troops into her territory. 

France and England began to take sides with 
Turkey, because they did not want Russia to become 
master of the Turkish lands. In 1854 they declared 
war against Russia, and sent out great fleets and 
armies to Varna, a Turkish port on the Black Sea. 
But the Turks had already beaten the Russians on 
the Danube, and had caused them to withdraw from 
Turkish territory. 

423 



424 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 

The allies were not satisfied with this, but said 
that the time had come to prevent Russia from be- 
coming mistress of the Black Sea. So the English 
and French forces were landed in the Crimea, in 
order that they might destroy the great Russian 
port and fortress, Sevastopol. The allies marched 
to the south of the city, so as to get supplies from 
their ships in the harbor of Balaclava. After some 
delays they began to attack Sevastopol and its forts. 
But by this time the Russians were strong enough 
to try to cut off the British army from its ships, 
and this led to the battle of Balaclava. 

A strange blunder of the English led to the 
famous charge of the Light Brigade. The officer 
in command mistook the meaning of an order from 
the commander-in-chief, and ordered his gallant 
riders to charge the Russian army, numbering some 
twenty-five thousand men. On swept the brave 
horsemen into the " valley of death." The smoke 
of the enemy's cannon and musketry fire closed 
around them. On they rode right into a Russian 
battery, put the gunners to the sword, and routed 
some Russian squadrons. But then the Light Bri- 
gade could do no more, and it had to ride back, 
breaking through the Russians who had formed in 
its rear. The enemy's cannon again made many 
a brave horseman bite the dust, and out of six hun- 
dred and seventy men of the Light Brigade only 
one hundred and ninety-five rode back to the camp, 

The Russians built strong earthworks to defend 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 



425 




426 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 

Sevastopol. During the winter of 1854 and spring 
of 1855 the English suffered frightfully from cold, 
want, and neglect in the trenches and hospitals. 
England was finally aroused, and the Government 
hurried forward supplies and sent the famous Flor- 
ence Nightingale with a corps of trained nurses. 

At last, in September, 1855, the French made a 
great effort and captured a strong Russian earth- 
work called the Malakoff; but the English failed 
to take the Redan, which was more difficult to hold 
against the Russian fire. But the Russians felt 
that they could hold out no longer in Sevastopol. 
So they burnt the few remaining ships, blew up 
their powder magazines, and in September, 1855, 
they left the great fortress which for nearly a year 
had defied the attacks of two armies. 

Peace was soon made, but most of the results of 
the war have entirely vanished. The Sultan did 
not take advantage of the opportunity then given 
of governing the Turkish Empire justly, and in 
1876 many of his Christian subjects rose in revolt 
against the bad government. Russia recovered 
from her heavy losses in the Crimean War, and 
in 1877 she nearly succeeded in overthrowing the 
Turkish power. Turkey is now weaker than ever, 
and her government is as bad as ever it was ; but 
many of her Christian subjects have gained inde- 
pendence from her control, and have formed the 
flourishing states Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria. 



THE INDIAN MUTINY. 
I. THE OUTBREAK— RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. 

After the exploits of Clive, Warren Hastings, 
and Wellington, the Indian possessions of Great 
Britain continued to increase, and the addition of 
several kingdoms formed the Indian provinces into 
a vast empire. When England was fighting Russia 
in the Crimea, the discontented rulers and classes 
in India thought it a good time to try to throw off 
the British yoke. Many of the sepoys in the 
service were annoyed by certain new rules, and 
a spark kindled the discontent into a devouring 
flame which nearly destroyed English dominion 
in India. 

It happened in this way. A new musket was 
about to be distributed to the soldiers in India, and 
the cartridges were said to be smeared with the fat of 
the ox or the pig. Now, nearly all the sepoys were 
either Hindoos or Mohammedans. The former 
worship the ox as a sacred animal ; the latter loathe 
the hog as unclean. For these reasons they refused 
to touch the cartridges ; and when the news got 
about that they would have to use them, they began 
to mutiny. 

The first serious outbreak was at Meerut (May, 

1857), where they killed several of the British 

427 



428 THE INDIAN MUTINY. 

officers and even the women and children. Then 
they seized the great city and fortress of Delhi. 
The south and the extreme northwest remained 
faithful, but the revolt was general in the great 
district of the Ganges and its numerous tributaries. 

At Lucknow a British garrison of nine hundred 
men and seven hundred faithful native troops was 
cooped up in the walls of the Residency, a large 
building which had been made as strong as possible. 
Soon the place was besieged by crowds of mutineers. 
For eighty-seven days the defence was kept up 
with splendid courage by the little garrison. They 
held their own in spite of constant and fierce attacks, 
— - in spite of bad food, intense heat, cholera, and 
small-pox. At last, when all hope seemed to be 
gone, they heard the sound of distant firing. 

It was Sir Henry Havelock and his brave troops, 
who had driven before them clouds of rebels, and 
amidst great difficulties were now forcing their way 
through the crowded streets of the city of Lucknow. 
Imagine the joy with which the weary and heroic 
garrison welcomed their deliverers. 



II. SIR COLIN CAMPBELL QUELLS THE MUTINY. 

Meanwhile at Delhi there had been events almost 
as exciting as those at Lucknow. Delhi is a vast 
fortified city, and its walls extend in a circuit of more 
than five and one-half miles. It was held by forty 
thousand rebel sepoys, and the brave English could 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL QUELLS THE MUTINY. 429 

muster only nine thousand men for the siege. This 
small force at first made no serious attack, but 
occupied a ridge a mile or two from the city. There 
they were often attacked by the rebels, but they 
clung to that ridge through the heat of the summer. 




Charge of the Highlanders at Lucknow. 



The arrival of reinforcements gave energy to the 
English. They made a fierce assault upon the city 
and entered. Then there was fierce fighting inside 
the walls for a long time. The rebels fought 
desperately from street to street, and from house 
to house ; but British pluck prevailed, even over 



430 



THE INDIAN MUTINY. 



terrible odds, and Delhi was at last won (September, 

1857)- 

At Lucknow there was sharp fighting before the 
garrison could be completely rescued. The aid 
brought by Havelock had not been sufficient, but 
more British troops were arriving from home, and 
they were led by the gallant Sir Colin Campbell to 




General Sir Colin Campbell. 

the second relief of Lucknow. With only five 
thousand men he drove aside larp-e bodies of the 
rebels, and stormed some great buildings at Luck- 
now. One of these was captured by Captain 
Garnet Wolseley, who has since become a famous 
general. 

After great difficulties the British garrison was 
rescued, and the men, women, and children were 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL QUELLS THE MUTINY. 43 1 

removed from the place which they had firmly held 
for six months (November, 1857). 

The worst of the mutiny was now over, and by 
degrees the mutineers were beaten in Oude, and 
also in Central India. Other nations had quite ex- 
pected that England would fail ; but the struggle 
there showed the bravery of British soldiers, and 
proved that her men, even under that burning sun, 
never knew when they were beaten. That was one 
reason why they regained India, even when it 
seemed hopelessly lost. But another reason was 
that many of the peoples of India were contented 
with the rule, which they had discovered to be far 
better than that of their native princes. 

Parliament now determined to make her gov- 
ernment in India better than ever before, and de- 
cided that England's dominions in India were too 
large to be ruled by the East India Company. The 
governing powers of that famous company have 
therefore since 1858 been wielded by the English 
government. Just laws have been made to satisfy 
the natives, great works have been carried out to 
make India more prosperous, and famines have been 
relieved. The peoples of India see that England 
is interested, and they know that it is only her rule 
which keeps them at peace one with another. 



SOME INJUSTICES REMOVED. 

RELIGIOUS TESTS ABOLISHED — FREE EDUCATION — 
JUSTICE TO IRELAND. 

One result of the bitter struggle between the 
Roman Catholics and the Protestants in the seven- 
teenth century was the passage of " The Act of 
Supremacy," which compelled every member of 
Parliament to acknowledge the English king 
or queen as Head of the Church of England. 
The Roman Catholics refused to do this, and so 
for more than three hundred years they could not 
sit in the House of Commons. 

This unjust law remained in force until 1830. 
Finally justice and good sense triumphed and the 
law was repealed. But Jews were still denied 
admission to the House of Commons. 

In 1858 Baron Rothschild, the famous banker, 
was admitted, and a few years later all religious 
tests for admission to the House of Commons, or 
to the great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
were removed. Tithes, too, are no longer directly 
collected for the support of the Established Church 
in England or Ireland. 

While the great endowed or public schools of 
England such as Harrow, Eton, and Rugby, fur- 

43 2 



FREE EDUCATION. 



433 




434 SOME INJUSTICES REMOVED. 

nished an excellent education for the upper classes, 
and the denominational, private, and grammar or 
Latin schools did good work for the middle classes, 
the poor were left to charity schools, except in Scot- 
land, where a sound elementary education was given 
to all. There the schoolhouse and the kirk stood 
side by side in every village. 

The ignorance of the common people of England, 
in the nineteenth century, is shown by the fact that 
forty per cent of the people, as late as 1840, could 
not sign their names to the parish register. To-day 
it is difficult to find an adult in the British Isles, 
under thirty years of age, who has not at least a 
fair elementary education. 

But it was the people themselves who had to fight 
for free education. The aristocracy, many of the 
clergy, and the squires, or large landowners, bit- 
terly opposed it for years. They claimed that if 
every one were taught to read and write, there would 
be no one to do the work needed to be done in the 
world, and when they were shown how stupid this 
idea was, they said that the common people ought 
only to be taught "the three r's," by which they 
meant, reading, writing, and arithmetic. 

At length, and not until 1870, the education of 
the English children was assured, and to-day it is 
not only free, but compulsory throughout the land, 
and all boys and girls who have intelligence and 
industry can work their way up from the primary 
school to the University. 



JUSTICE TO IRELAND. 435 

During the first half of the nineteenth century 
men, women, and children in factories and the fields 
often worked for more than twelve hours a day. 
Gradually the hours of labor have been reduced, and 
now most factories only work nine hours a day ; the 
government workshops only eight. 

For a long time the writers in the newspapers in 
England were not allowed to speak out so freely as 
they can to-day. Men were often put in prison for 
saying things which were against the government, 
and much persecution of this kind was suffered. 
Moreover, newspapers had to pay a tax, which made 
them high-priced and prevented them from getting 
into the hands of the poorer people. 

Since the reign of James I. there has always been 
discontent in Ireland, and with reason. A great 
deal of the land is owned by Englishmen whose 
ancestors obtained it by repeated acts of confisca- 
tion because of rebellions during the reigns of 
James and Elizabeth, and the protectorate of Crom- 
well. The present tenants are mainly the descend- 
ants of those whose lands were so confiscated. 
The landlords are largely non-residents, who expect 
their agents to send them good rentals. 

Owing to their love of home and the soil on which 
they were brought up, the tenants often promised 
to pay more than they could afford, and often when 
they made the land more productive, the landlords' 
agents raised their rent. When crops failed they 
were unable to pay, and until recently were evicted, 



436 SOME INJUSTICES REMOVED. 

often under most cruel circumstances, thus losing the 
value of all the improvements they had made on 
the land. The law was always on the side of the 
landlord. This evil had gone on for many years, 
but with bitter complaining, when a period of dis- 
tress came upon Ireland, between 1875 an d 1879, 
owing to the failure of the potato crop. 

The Irish Land League was then formed, which 
had for its ultimate object to secure for the peasantry 
of Ireland the title of the soil just as the French 
peasantry in great measure own the soil of France. 
The head of the League was Charles Stewart Par- 
nell, whose mother was an American, and daughter 
of the distinguished naval officer, Admiral Charles 
Stewart. 

The League extended throughout Ireland and 
wherever Irishmen were found, the wide world over. 
Immense sums of money were raised which were 
used to support evicted tenants, to pay the ex- 
penses of the members of the Land League who 
were in Parliament, and the other expenses of the 
campaign to secure justice for Ireland. The wrongs 
of the tenants were urged upon Parliament, which 
did take some action, but justice was doled out to 
the Irish with a grudging hand. 

The Land League then forced the " boycott " 
against harsh landlords or agents. This word comes 
from the name of Captain Boycott, — an unpopular 
landlord's agent. In 1881 the people agreed among 
themselves to sell him nothing, to transport nothing 



JUSTICE TO IRELAND. 437 

to his house, to serve him in no way whatever, and 
so successfully did they do this that he and his 
family were reduced almost to starvation. This 
weapon of " boycotting " was afterwards often em- 
ployed against unpopular men all over Ireland. 

The more reckless sympathizers with the tenants 
mutilated cattle, burned farm buildings, shot land- 
lords or agents, and perpetrated dynamite outrages. 
This culminated in the murder of Lord Cavendish, 
Chief Secretary of Ireland, and of Mr. Burke, a gov- 
ernment official. 

But Mr. Gladstone, in spite of these crimes, was 
determined to try to do justice to Ireland. So, in 
1 88 1, he secured the passage of a bill which is 
known as the " Three F's " ; Fair Rent, Fixity of 
Tenure, and Free Sale. By this law a Board of 
Land Commissioners may fix the rent of the tenant ; 
he is secure in the possession of his farm for fifteen 
years ; he can sell his tenancy. 

About the same time the Established Church 
(Episcopal) of Ireland was disestablished, and it now 
depends upon voluntary support. Thus another 
cause of friction was removed, and a better feeling 
seems to be growing up in Ireland, especially since 
Mr. Gladstone's further attempts to give to Ireland 
a measure of Home Rule. His efforts failed, but 
since his death, a system of local self-government 
has been introduced which it is hoped will pave the 
way for a complete settlement of the disputes be- 
tween the two countries. 



THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
I. THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 

We shall now turn our attention to the growth 
of the chief groups of British colonies in North 
America, Australia, and South Africa. 

The Indian empire cannot be called a colony. 
Its peoples have submitted to English rule ; but 
that great land has not been colonized or peopled 
by Englishmen, and it never can be, because the 
heat is so intense that white men cannot live there 
all their lives. 

A colony is a land peopled, wholly or in part 
from the nation which owns it ; and this has hap- 
pened in the colonies in North America, Australia, 
and South Africa. 

In previous chapters we learned about England's 
loss of her chief American colonies, which in 1776 
called themselves the United States of America. 
Many of their people did not wish to be separated 
from the mother country, and soon moved across 
the border, and settled in parts of Canada and of 
Nova Scotia, so as to remain loyal to the British 
crown. About twenty thousand of them settled in 
a part of Nova Scotia, which was soon declared to 
be a separate British colony, and was called New 
Brunswick. 

438 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 439 

Others settled in Upper Canada, i.e. the parts 
above Montreal, on the great river St. Lawrence, 
and their coming made the British people far 
stronger in Canada than ever they had been before. 
The French, who form nearly all the population 
of Lower Canada, had remained loyal to the 
British rule, even when the troops of the United 
States invaded their land and tempted them to 
revolt. 

And yet the government in London long feared 
that Canada would revolt as the United States had 
done. To prevent any chance of that, Canada was 
divided into two provinces, which were kept as 
much apart as possible. But this plan worked 
badly. The French of Lower Canada were on bad 
terms with the British population of Upper Canada ; 
and both provinces were discontented with their 
government. 

In the first year of Queen Victoria's reign, there 
was a revolt among the French. It was soon put 
down by the British ; then the government decided 
to unite the two provinces, and let Canada manage 
its own affairs much more than before. From that 
time (1841) the British part of Canada has increased 
in population and prosperity more than the French 
part. The French cling to their old manner of life 
and of farming, while the English and Scotch 
of Upper Canada have shown great enterprise. 

For instance, a great railway, called the Grand 
Trunk Railway, was opened ; and in order to con- 



44-0 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

nect Montreal with the United States, a very expen- 
sive bridge was made over the St. Lawrence. It is 
a lofty tubular bridge, more than three thousand 
yards long, and rests on twenty-four huge stone 
buttresses, built so as to resist the pressure of the 
blocks of ice in spring. 

Canada and the other British colonies in North 
America continued to thrive, but little was done to 
unite them till 1864. Then plans for uniting them 
were discussed, and thanks to Sir John MacDonald, 
all those colonies (except Newfoundland) agreed to 
form the Dominion of Canada, which includes all 
British North American colonies from Nova Scotia 
on the Atlantic to Vancouver Island on the far-off 
Pacific. Since then the Dominion of Canada has 
become more and more prosperous. 



II. AUSTRALIA. 

There are great differences between the Domin- 
ion of Canada and Australia. Canada is merely 
the northern part of a great continent. Australia 
is a vast island in the southern sea. Canada is a 
land of great lakes and navigable rivers. The Aus- 
tralian lakes are merely useless swamps ; the rivers 
are often mere marshy pools connected by a feeble 
trickle of water, but after heavy rains they rapidly 
swell into raging torrents. In Canada the winter is 
long and intensely cold, while Australia, except in 



EXPLORATION AND GROWTH OF AUSTRALIA. 44 1 

its most southerly parts, has no winter. It has been 
wittily said that in Australia you may ladle your 
butter out in a spoon, while in Canada it often has 
to be chopped with a hatchet. 

Yet in these very different countries Englishmen 
have prospered equally, and the population of Aus- 
tralia and New Zealand is nearly as large as that 
of the Dominion of Canada. At first the settle- 
ment in Australia was very small and feeble. 

Captain Cook discovered the Pacific coast of 
Australia in 1769, and proclaimed it to be British 
land. It was not till 1787 that any point of it was 
settled. In that year 757 convicts were sent out to 
form a settlement at Botany Bay, on the coast of 
New South Wales. In the next year they were 
removed to Sydney a little farther north. 

Later free settlers went from England, and by 
degrees roads were made over the mountains, and 
sheep and cattle began to increase enormously. An 
adventurous young explorer named Bass sailed 
through the straits called after him, and when it was 
thus proved that Van Diemen's Land (now called 
Tasmania) was an island, convicts were sent there, 
and formed the second Australian colony (1804). 
A party of convicts was also sent to western Aus- 
tralia (1826), thus founding the third of those col- 
onies. In 1834 a colony was founded in South 
Australia. 

The youngest of those colonies are Victoria and 
Queensland, which after 1850 became indepen- 



44 2 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

dent of the mother colony, New South Wales. 
Just about the time when Victoria became a colony, 
gold was discovered there in large quantities, and a 
wild rush to it was made from all parts. In two 
or three years the craze was over and matters settled 
down. 

Though gold-mining has been and is profitable, 
the chief wealth of Australia is in the rearing of 
sheep and the growth of wheat. Australian wheat 
and wool are among the best in the world. The 
vine and nearly all fruit-trees flourish in the fertile 
parts ; and if the rainfall were more regular, Aus- 
tralia would be one of the richest lands in the world. 
But the long droughts often ruin the hopes of the 
farmer, and cause the death of thousands of sheep 
and cattle. 



III. THE FEDERATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. 

The world has probably seen no greater " triumph 
of Democracy " than the federation of the six Aus- 
tralian Colonies of Victoria, Queensland, New South 
Wales, West Australia, South Australia, and the 
Northern Territory, which have now become the 
Australian Commonwealth. Each colony has local 
self-government independent of that of the mother 
country of England, and yet it is as closely bound 
up with it and with each other as any state in 
the Union is bound up with our own Federal 
Government. 



THE FEDERATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. 443 

During the last few years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury there had been growing up among the Austra- 
lians a sentiment in favor of the federation of the 
Australian colonies, and "free and united Aus- 
tralia," which has been the dream of many a 
reformer and the theme of many a poet, has now 
become an accomplished fact. The inauguration 
of the Australian Commonwealth took place with 
much pomp and ceremony at Sydney, New South 
Wales, on January I, 1901. 

This is probably one of the most important events 
in the history of our race since the time when " the 
embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard 
round the world," and we should notice carefully 
the difference between England's action in the time 
of George III. at the end of the eighteenth century, 
and the action she took in the reign of Queen Vic- 
toria at the end of the nineteenth century. 

In the reign of George III., a Tory Government 
and a tyrannical king, under whose sway no real 
liberty was enjoyed, either at home or abroad, so 
little understood the temper of the people as to pro- 
voke a war which lost to England the whole of the 
American colonies. In the last days of Queen Vic- 
toria's reign, when the English people were living 
under what is practically the most democratic gov- 
ernment in the world, a government which really 
governs by the people for the people, those great 
English colonies in the southern Pacific, which 
have led the way in some democratic reforms and 



444 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

government experiments that have benefited the 
world, have united to secure a larger measure of 
freedom in self-government, and they have done so 
without sacrificing any of their loyalty and love to 
the mother land. 

The new Commonwealth has framed its plan for 
self-government largely upon the American Consti- 
tution. It has borrowed much from England's 
experience with Canada, and there are many who 
think that this is the first step towards the federa- 
tion of the British empire. 



IV. CAPE COLONY AND NATAL. 

The most important British colony in Africa is 
Cape Colony. It is so called from the Cape of Good 
Hope at the south-eastern tip of that great conti- 
nent. The Portuguese gave that name to the cape 
soon after they discovered it (i486), because, if they 
reached that cape, there was a good hope that they 
would reach India. In those days the Cape was the 
chief place at which ships called between Europe 
and India. After some time the Dutch East India 
Company took possession of it, and jealously kept 
out all other settlers and traders. Indeed many of 
their own settlers found the rules so irksome that 
they moved right away inland and formed other 
settlements. 

At last the rule of the Dutch ceased. In 1795, 
an English fleet captured the settlement; and it 



CAPE COLONY AND NATAL. 



445 



has since belonged to England, except for a short 
interval. Though it was a British colony, the set- 
tlers were nearly all Dutch, until, in 1820, the gov- 
ernment helped a large number of British settlers 
to go out there, most of whom settled at or near 
Port Elizabeth. There were many troubles with 
the natives, especially with the agile and warlike 




-■ - - -_" -■ '- - :^_~ " ■ ■ _ •■■■■ ■: •■■■- ■■■.■. ^Wgfflj 

. .-■ -*. ■ " fS5 " _" .- .- "T.-.-^iJ-- 






A Boer Trek. 



Kaffirs. At one time it seemed as though their 
hosts, armed with spears, would destroy all the colo- 
nists, but at last they were thoroughly beaten. 

There were many troubles between the govern- 
ment and the Dutch settlers, who did not like hav- 
ing their slaves set free by order of the English law 
of 1834. In the following years nearly ten thousand 



446 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

of the Dutch farmers, called Boers, packed up their 
goods in wagons, and went away to the north of 
the Orange River, so as to be beyond English con- 
trol. There they founded two independent states, 
the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, which 
touch Natal. 

Natal was so called by the Portuguese who dis- 
covered it, because they sighted its coast in 1497 
on Christmas Day, the natal day of Christ. It was 
not claimed by any Europeans till 1823, when a 
small band of Englishmen bought land from the 
Zulus and settled there. The little colony was 
often in danger from the attacks of the powerful 
and warlike Zulus, who also killed a great number 
of Dutchmen or Boers. Then, when these had 
conquered the Zulus, they attacked the English 
settlers, but were at last driven back, and Natal 
became an English colony in 1843. 



V. THE TRANSVAAL AND THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 

In 1869 the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand 
West drew a large number of settlers to the country, 
where in a short time the flourishing mining town 
of Kimberley arose. Griqualand became part of 
Cape Colony in 1871, and since then almost every 
year some new region has come under the British 
flag. 

The continual discords between the Boers and 
the natives, the bankruptcy of the Boer govern- 



THE TRANSVAAL AND THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 447 

ment, and the desire of many of the Boers them- 
selves, led Lord Beaconsfield in 1877 to place the 
Transvaal under British rule, and Great Britain 
was involved in war with the Zulus, a brave and 
warlike race with whom the Boers had quarrelled. 
The opening of the war was marked by the terrible 
disaster at Isandula, when the Zulus, under their 
king Cetewayo, cut to pieces the small British # force 
opposed to them. But the Zulus were soon crushed 
and Zulu land became a British colony. The Prince 
Imperial of France, son of Napoleon and Eugenie, 
was at this time a military student in England. In 
a spirit of adventure he volunteered his services. 
While on a scout his party was suddenly attacked 
by the savages, the Prince was separated from his 
companions and slain, and thus the last hope of the 
Napoleonic family in the direct line in France was 
cut off. 

The Zulu war was hardly concluded when the 
Boers revolted. They defeated small British forces 
in several battles, and the English government, at 
the suggestion of Mr. Gladstone, believing that the 
annexation of the Transvaal had been a mistake, 
with great generosity stopped the war and restored 
their independence to the Boers, reserving to Great 
Britain the right to control their foreign relations. 

The discovery of valuable gold deposits in the 
Transvaal — perhaps the most extensive in the 
world — caused a great migration of Englishmen 
to the mines. They were styled Outlanders by the 



448 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

Boers. They outnumbered the Boers, who were 
fiercely jealous of them and denied them all political 
rights, although they possessed most of the wealth, 
intelligence, and enterprise of the colony. 

The people labored under these disadvantages 
and many others for years. The British govern- 
ment meanwhile tried to induce the Boers to give 
the Outlanders equal rights with them, but in vain. 
The Boers feared progress, as we understand it. 
They preferred farming and country life to that of 
the towns and cities, and they feared that the city 
dwellers, the miners, manufacturers, and capitalists, 
grown more numerous, and in possession of equal 
political rights with them, would outvote them. 
They therefore continued to insist upon taxing 
the Outlanders without allowing them to be politi- 
cally represented. Many of these Outlanders had 
been invited to the country by the Boers them- 
selves, where they had invested enormous sums of 
money, were carrying on mining and other in- 
dustries which were heavily taxed, and had built 
beautiful cities which had also contributed largely 
to the revenue. 

Unfortunately, while all this was being discussed, 
some Outlanders under Dr. Jamieson attempted to 
overthrow the Boer government, and depose Presi- 
dent Kruger by force, by making a raid on Johan- 
nesburg. This took place towards the end of 1895. 
The attempt was however defeated, and Dr. Jamie- 
son and his followers were punished. 



THE TRANSVAAL AND THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 449 

The South African Chartered Company, which 
was responsible for the raid, agreed to pay the Trans- 
vaal Republic whatever sums had been expended 
in connection with the invasion. A bill was pre- 
sented by the Boers for eight million dollars divided 
under two heads, material damages about three 
millions, and moral and intellectual damages five 
millions. The claim for moral and intellectual 
damages was not considered by the English, and 
details of expenditure under the other heading 
were asked for. When they came to hand, many 
of the items were absurd ; for example, nearly 
twelve thousand dollars was charged for shoeing 
horses, and twenty thousand dollars for carts and 
horses. The raid only occupied four days, and no 
account was taken of the fact that these supplies 
remained the property of the Republic. Then the 
English agreed to pay all expenses for which 
vouchers were produced. No vouchers were ever 
forwarded, and there the matter of compensation 
rests. 

After this, although President Kruger promised 
to inquire into and remedy the grievances of the 
Outlanders, their lot grew worse and worse, and in 
March, 1899, twenty-five thousand of them appealed 
to the British government for aid. Fresh negotia- 
tions between the Boer and British governments 
began immediately, and continued for over six 
months ; President Kruger and his government in 
the meanwhile continuing to arm themselves as 



450 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

rapidly as possible, as indeed they had been do- 
ing ever since the Jamieson raid. The British, 
meanwhile, strengthened their military forces in 
their South African possessions bordering on the 
Republics. 

At length, however, in October, 1899, as the 
British government found itself unable to comply 
with certain demands of the Boers, war was begun 
by the latter, by the invasion of the colony of Natal. 
At first, owing to their ignorance of the geographi- 
cal conditions of the country, their lack of prepara- 
tion, and their clinging to old-fashioned methods 
in warfare, the British suffered severe defeats, 
although they fought with all the bravery for which 
the race has ever been famous. The Boers on 
their side were equally brave, and were frank in 
their admiration of the bravery of the British, who 
in turn heartily praised the bravery of the Boers. 
The latter displayed remarkable skill in the handling 
of their troops, adopting tactics well suited to the 
nature of the country. After nearly two years fight- 
ing, the British have succeeded in getting posses- 
sion of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal 
Republic, and the two Republics are now declared 
British Crown Colonies. 

The British nation claims that it fought in South 
Africa for the same principle that the English in 
America fought for in the War of the Revolution 
against King George III., namely, that taxation and 
representation must always go together. While the 



EGYPT. 451 

Boers claim that they were defending their land 
against unjust invasion, that Great Britain had no 
right to fix the terms on which they should give 
the franchise to the Outlanders, that England had 
no suzerainty over the Transvaal Republics, and 
that therefore she had no right to interfere in their 
internal affairs. 

The Germans and French have taken large tracts 
of the African continent under their rule or pro- 
tection. Similar extensions of British territory have 
been made. Besides these possessions in the west 
and south of Africa, the British hold on the east the 
island and town of Zanzibar and considerable terri- 
tory on the mainland. 

Great trading companies are opening up the re- 
sources of British Africa, and at last the slave-trade, 
the curse of Africa for thousands of years, is nearing 
its end. 

VI. EGYPT. 

In northeast Africa, circumstances have led to 
the garrisoning of Egypt by British troops and the 
rule of British officials. Through Egypt lies the 
shortest route to India, and it is very important that 
the country should not fall into the hands of rulers, 
unfriendly to Britain, especially as she possesses a 
very large number of shares in the Suez Canal 
which connects the Mediterranean with the Red 
Sea, and through which nine-tenths of the traffic is 
carried on by British ships. 



452 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

Egypt is nominally a part of the Turkish empire 
and is ruled under the Sultan of Turkey, by the 
Khedive. In 1879, the Khedive Ismail abdicated 
after a period of misrule and extravagance which 
almost ruined the country, and his successor was 
compelled to allow British and French officials to 
direct his government. Many of the native Egyp- 
tians resented this, and in 1882, an ambitious sol- 
dier, Arabi Pasha, raised an insurrection, and 
expelled the European officials. 

England called upon France to help put down 
the rebellion, but she refused, and England was 
forced to act alone. Alexandria, which had been 
fortified by Arabi, and in which a massacre of 
Europeans had taken place, was bombarded by the 
British fleet, and Arabi was routed by Sir Garnet 
Wolseley at the fierce battle of Tel-el- Kebir (1882), 
which took place after a long, silent, march across 
the desert in the dead of night — the army having 
only the light of the stars for its guide. Since that 
time, Britain has taken Egypt under her protection 
with great benefit to the country, which is now well 
governed for the first time in its later history. 

In 1888, further troubles occurred. A fanatic, 
calling himself the Mahdi, raised a rebellion in the 
Soudan against the Egyptian government. The 
Egyptian garrisons were in danger of being de- 
stroyed, and an Egyptian force sent to their relief 
under an English officer, General Hicks, was cut to 
pieces. General Gordon, a brave officer who knew 



EGYPT. 453 

the country well and had done good work there 
before, was then sent out by the British govern- 
ment to withdraw the Egyptian garrisons. He took 
no troops with him, believing that his personal in- 
fluence would enable him to accomplish the work 
safely. 

On arriving at Khartoum; the capital of the Sou- 
dan, Gordon was surrounded by the Mahdi's forces. 
He made a gallant defence against them, but find- 
ing it impossible to withdraw the Egyptian garrison 
without help, he sent to London, asking for British 
troops. Months passed before his request was 
granted. Then Lord Wolseley was sent to Egypt 
with a small force. On arriving, he made the 
greatest possible haste towards Khartoum, taking 
his army up the Nile in boats, with the help of 
skilled Canadian boatmen, and marching rapidly 
across the arid deserts. At the battle of Abukela, 
the Mahdi's forces were defeated, and the British 
pressed on, only to learn when within one hundred 
miles of Khartoum, that the city had been betrayed 
to the enemy, and that Gordon had been slain. 
The Soudan was then left to its fate, and England 
deeply mourned the loss of the general whose noble 
character and romantic career made him so interest- 
ing a figure. 

But England never retraces a step taken in the 
right direction. She quietly organized an army of 
Soudanese and Egyptians, who were thoroughly 
drilled by English officers, supported by English 



454 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

regulars, and commanded by a man of iron will. 
Slowly they moved up the valley of the Nile towards 
Khartoum. A railway followed them, insuring sup- 
plies of all kinds. Before Khartoum, at Omdurman, 
the army of the Mahdi was met and annihilated ; 
Khartoum was reoccupied* and over the spot where 
Gordon fell, the Christian burial service was read in 
the presence of the English troops. The leader of 
this successful expedition has since been made Lord 
Kitchener, of Khartoum. A college has been built 
for the education of the Soudanese, and soon rail- 
road and river will join Cairo and Capetown, con- 
necting the English colonies, and carrying western 
civilization into the heart of Africa. 



THE STORY OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 

The beginning of the twentieth century marked 
the end of the long reign of Queen Victoria. She 
reigned for sixty-four years, longer than any monarch 
that ever sat on the English or any other throne. 
When she ascended the throne the news took four 




Windsor Castle. 



weeks to reach America. The four words " The 
Queen is dead," were flashed around the world in 
less than half an hour. She was born on May 4, 
18 1 9, and died January 22, 1901. She was the 
granddaughter of King George III., a good man, 
perhaps, but stupid and obstinate, for it was his 
stupidity and obstinacy, and the bad advice of his 
Tory ministers that provoked the war of the Ameri- 

455 



456 QUEEN VICTORIA. 

can Revolution. Victoria was very carefully edu- 
cated, for it was soon seen that she, standing in 
direct line of succession to the throne, was destined 
to occupy it at no very distant day. When she was 
about twelve years old she had gradually learned 
that she was some day to be queen, and instead of 
the prospect flattering her vanity, she trembled at 
her coming responsibilities, and was very unhappy 
at the thought of the weight of care she would have 
to carry. But young as she was, she determined to 
do all that she could to qualify herself for the high 
position she was one day destined to fill. George 
IV. had succeeded to George III., and King William 
had followed him, dying in 1837. His successor 
was sleeping soundly at Kensington Palace on the 
night of June 19-20 of that year, when the Lord 
Chamberlain and the Archbishop of Canterbury 
came with the news that roused the maiden, who 
had gone to sleep a princess and awoke a queen. 
She slipped out of bed, threw a shawl round her 
shoulders, and with her long bright hair falling over 
her shoulders, she came into the room, and listened 
with tearful eyes to the news they had to tell. Her 
first thought w r as not for herself, but for her Aunt 
Adelaide, the queen of William III., now left a 
widow. When the Archbishop and the Lord 
Chamberlain had left her, the queen's first act was 
to sit down and write a letter of sympathy to her 
widowed aunt. At eleven o'clock on June 20, the 
Council of State was called to receive the young 



QUEEN VICTORIA. 



I 



457 



queen. Lord Beaconsfield, describing the scene, 
says : — 

" There are assembled the prelates and captains 
and chief men of her realm. A hum of half-sup- 
pressed conversation fills that brilliant assemblage, 
a sea of plumes, and glittering stars, and gorgeous 
dresses. Hush! The portals open, — she comes. 
The silence is as deep as that of a noontide forest. 




Queen Victoria. 



Attended for a moment by her royal mother and the 
ladies of her court, who bow and then retire, Vic- 
toria ascends her throne alone, and for the first time 
amid an assembly of men." 

On the tenth of February, 1840, Queen Victoria 
was married to her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Co- 
burg, a man of noble character and great learning 
and accomplishments. One of the most notable 
events of the early part of her reign was the great 



45§ 



QUEEN VICTORIA. 



exhibition of 1 851, which was held in Hyde Park. 
The conception of this is said to have been entirely 
that of Prince Albert, and every boy and girl knows 
how popular the idea has since become. Almost 
every nation now has its International Exhibition 
at intervals of five or ten years. The glass building, 
which was erected in Hyde Park for this exhibition 
in 1 85 1, was subsequently removed to a suburb of 




King Edward VII. 



London where it now stands, and is known as the 
Crystal Palace. 

The Princess Royal, the queen's oldest daughter, 
who afterwards became Empress of Germany and 
mother of the present emperor of that country, was 
born in 1840, and a year later the Prince of Wales, 
who is now King Edward the VII., was born. Dur- 
ing her long life she knew what it was to lose many 
of her loved ones, but the greatest blow of all was 



QUEEN VICTORIA. 459 

the death of the Prince Consort in November, 1861, 
after twenty-two years of a happy married life, such 
as is rarely the lot of any one, whether prince or 
pauper. 

A most remarkable display of national feeling 
took place during the illness of the Prince of Wales 
in 1872, and the devout side of the queen's charac- 
ter was very prominently shown when the national 
thanksgiving took place for his recovery. In this 
connection it has been told of the queen that when 
asked by a foreign potentate the secret of England's 
greatness, she pointed to the Bible. 

The leading public events of Queen Victoria's 
reign have been dealt with in the preceding chap- 
ters (all these great happenings were matters of im- 
mediate personal concern to her), and her declining 
years were much saddened by the unfortunate war 
with the Boers. 

The queen was always fortunate in her ad- 
visers. Her first minister was Lord Melbourne, 
upon whom she relied much until her marriage 
with Prince Albert. While she always had a clear 
judgment and a strong will of her own, she did not 
fail to profit by the wisdom and experience of the 
successive Prime Ministers who came into power 
during her reign. Her influence was always for 
peace, and for the good of her people, but above 
all, Queen Victoria is entitled to the rank as the 
Mother Queen of History. She had a large family 
of sons and daughters, all of whom were carefully 



460 QUEEN VICTORIA. 

brought up with a view to their filling the high posi- 
tions which they would one day have to occupy. 

She did not escape the dangers at the hands of 
fanatics to which all royalties seem to be exposed. 
Several times in the course of her long reign her 
life was attempted, but the would-be assassins in no 
case succeeded in wounding her. 

She took the keenest interest in the world's 
doings, and followed current events with much 
closeness. She was a widely read woman, and had 
sound literary tastes. Her books revealed the 
domestic side of her character in a very complete, 
simple, and pleasant way. She had some skill as 
a musician, and at one time devoted considerable 
attention to painting. She was an accomplished 
linguist, speaking several European languages, and 
after she was created Empress of India, by Lord 
Beaconsfield in 1876, she set herself to learn Hin- 
dustanee in order to be able more fully to enter into 
the thoughts of the people of the vast empire of 
India. 

During her reign the first great example was 
given to the world of settling disputes between 
nations without righting in the case of the Ala- 
bama, — a ship which was fitted out in England to 
help the South during the Civil War in the United 
States. This vessel, as well as the Florida and the 
Shenandoah, which either had come from British 
ports or had used them to refit or revictual, caused 
great damage to Northern shipping, and America 



QUEEN VICTORIA. 46 1 

was naturally indignant with the English in conse- 
quence. An angry dispute went on for six years 
after the Civil War was over. At length it was 
referred to a court which sat at Geneva, in Switzer- 
land ; and after the most able and learned lawyers on 
both sides had argued the case it was decided that, 
although the English government did not wish to let 
the ships go from, or use, her ports, she ought to 
have taken greater care to prevent them from doing 
so, and must therefore pay for the consequences of 
her want of oversight, so Great Britain had to pay 
America the sum of $17,250,000, and thus the dis- 
pute was settled. 

This great example has been followed not only 
by those who set it, but by other nations of the 
world, and although it may be long before war will 
entirely cease to be the means of settling disputes 
between the nations, there is still hope that we may 
go on in the path of freedom 

" Till the war drum throbs no longer, and the battle flags are furled 
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." 

Her power was always exercised in the direc- 
tion of social reform and for the moral well- 
being of her people. Under her reign more was 
done for their benefit than under any other. We 
have spoken in other chapters of some of the 
changes that were made : popular education, rec- 
reation grounds for the people, Saturday half- 
holidays, the bank holidays, and the growth of the 



462 EDWARD THE SEVENTH. 

public library system were all movements which had 
her warm sympathy and hearty support. The pro- 
tection of children and animals also was a subject 
in which she was keenly interested, and it is to her 
influence, no doubt, that so much has been done to 
improve a condition of things which in the early 
days of the century was a disgrace to England. 



EDWARD VII. 



The education and experience of the Prince of 
Wales have especially fitted him to carry on the 
work of a constitutional monarch, that is, a king 
whose powers and duties are very much the same 
as those of the President of the United States. 

He has travelled all over the world, and has be- 
come familiar with men and affairs. He is loyal 
to the better traditions of Englishmen, while being 
thoroughly in harmony with the onward movements 
of the present day, and he has always shown that 
he has the welfare of the people at heart. 

He acceded to the throne on the 2 2d of January, 
1 90 1, and addressing the people the next day said: 
" My constant endeavor will be always to walk in 
her (the Queen's) footsteps. ... I am fully deter- 
mined to be a constitutional sovereign . . . and 
. . . to work for the good and amelioration of my 
people," and his actions have thus far been in ac- 
cordance with this promise. 



IMPORTANT DATES IN ENGLISH HISTORY. 



BRITAIN BEFORE THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH. 



55 b.c. 

54 • 

43 a.d. 

78-81 
121 
209 
410 



Caesar's first expedition to Britain. 

Caesar's second expedition to Britain. 

Beginning of Roman conquest of Britain. 

Agricola's government of Britain. 

Hadrian's wall built between the Solway and Tyne. 

Severus restored wall of Hadrian. 

Roman troops withdrawn from Britain. 



ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 



450-586 . 


. The English conquest of Britain. 


597 • • ■ 


. Landing of St. Augustine. 


827 . . . 


. Egbert becomes king of all England 


787 (about) 


. The Danish invasions begin. 


871-901 . . 


. Alfred's reign. 


991 , . 


. Danegeld first paid. 


1002 . . 


. Massacre of Danes. 


1016-1035 


. Cnut (Canute) first Danish king. 


1016 . . 


. Edmund Ironside. 


1 042- 1 066 


. Edward the Confessor. 


1066 . . 


. . Harold II. 


1066, Octobei 


• . Battle of Hastings. 



ENGLAND UNDER NORMAN KINGS. 



1066-1087 


. William the Conqueror 


1085-1086 


. Domesday Book. 


1087-1100 


. William II. 


1093 . . 


. Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury 


I IOO- I 135 


. Henry I. 


I 100 . . 


. First charter. 


1135-1154 


. Stephen of Blois. 


1138 . . 


. . Battle of the Standard. 


"53 • • 


. Treaty of Wallingford. 




464 



IMPORTANT DATES. 



465 



ENGLAND UNDER PLANTAGENET KINGS. 



A.D. 




IIS4-II89 . 


. Henry II. 


"55 • • • 


. Becket chancellor. 


1 162 . . . 


. Becket Archbishop of Canterbury. 


1 164 . . . 


. Constitutions of Clarendon. 


1 1 70, Decemb 


er Becket murdered. 


1171 . . . 


. English rule in Ireland begins. 


1 1 76 . . . 


. Circuit judges established. 


1189-1199 


. Richard I. 


1199-1216 


. John. 


1207 . . 


. Stephen Langton archbishop. 


1213 . . 


. John's homage to Pope Innocent III. 


1215 . . 


. Magna Charta. 


1216-1272 


. Henry III. 


1258 . . . 


. Provisions of Oxford. 


1264 . . 


. Battle of Lewes. 


1265 . . 


. Battle of Evesham. 


1265 . . 


. Beginning of the House of Commons 


1272-1307 


. Edward I. 


1 276-1 284 


. Conquest of Wales. 


1296 . . 


. Edward invades Scotland. 


1297 • • 


. Confirmation of the charters. 


1307-1327 


. Edward II. 


1314 . . 


. Battle of Bannockburn. 


*327-i377 


. . Edward III. 


1337 • • 


. Hundred Years' War begins. 


1340 . . 


. . Battle of Sluys. 


1346 . . 


. . Battle of Crecy. 


1347 • • 


. . Capture of Calais. 


1 348-1 349 


. . The Black Death. 


1356 . . 


. Battle of Poitiers. 


1362 . . 


. . English language officially used. 


I377~ I 399 


. . Richard II. 


1381 • • 


. . The Peasants' revolt. 



ENGLAND UNDER HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK. 



1399-1413 . 

1403 . . . 

1413-1422 . 

1414 • • • 
1415, October 
1422-1461 

1429 . . . 

1431 • • • 



Henry IV. 

Battle of Shrewsbury. 

Henry V. 

Lollard rising. 

Battle of Agincourt. 

Henry VI. 

English defeated at Orleans. 

" Maid of Orleans " burnt. 



466 



A.D 

145° 
145° 
1453 

1455 

1461-1483 

1466 
1471 

H75 

1477 

1483 
1483-1485 

1485 . 



IMPORTANT DATES. 

Normandy lost by English. 

Jack Cade's (Yorkist) rising. 

Hundred Years' War ends. 

"Wars of the Roses begin. 

Edward IV. 

Henry VI. prisoner in Tower. 

Edward IV. wins battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. 

Treaty of Pecquigny. 

Caxton introduces printing. 

Edward V., king, and murdered. 

Richard III. 

Battle of Bosworth; end of the Wars of the Roses. 



ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS. 



1485-1509 • 


. Henry VII. 


i486 . . . 


. Star Chamber. 


1492 . . . 


. Perkin Warbeck's revolt. 


1492 . . . 


. America discovered. 


1502 . . . 


. Princess Margaret marries James IV. of Scotland 


1509-1547 • 


. Henry VIII. 


i5!3-i5 2 9 • 


. Wolsey in power. 


1513 . . . 


. Battle of Flodden. 


1529 . . . 


. Fall of Wolsey. 


i533-i54o • 


. Thomas Cromwell in power (The Terror). 


1534 • • ■ 


. Act of Supremacy. 


1536 . . . 


. Suppression of monasteries begins. 


1536 . . . 


. Wales united with England. 


1536 • ■ 


. Anne Boleyn executed. 


I547-J553 


. . Edward VI. 


1548 • • 


. First Book of Common Prayer. 


1553-1558 


. . Mary. 


1554 • • 


. Wyatt's insurrection. 


1554 • • 


. Lady Jane Grey executed. 


1554 • • 


. . Mary I. marries Philip II. 


i55 6 - J 558 


. . The persecution. 


1558 . . 


. . Calais recovered by French. 


1558-1603 


. . Elizabeth. 


1559 • • 


. . Court of High Commission founded. 


1563 • • 


. . English Reformation completed. 


1568 . . 


. . Mary Stuart flees to England. 


1577-1580 


. . Sir Francis Drake sails round world. 


1587 . . 


. . Mary Stuart executed. 


1588 . . 


. .. Spanish Armada. 


1600 . . 


. . East India Company's Charter. 


1601 . . 


. . Poor Law passed. 



IMPORTANT DATES. 



467 



ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 



A.D. 






1603- 


1625 


. . James I. 


1605 




. . Gunpowder Plot. 


l6ll 




. Authorized Version of Bible. 


1625- 


1649 


. . Charles I. 


1628 




. . Petition of Right. 


1633 




. . Wentworth lord-deputy in Ireland. 


1633 




. . Laud made Archbishop of Canterbury. 


1635 




. . Ship-money resisted by Hampden. 


1638 




. . The National Covenant. 


164O 




. . Long Parliament met. 


164I 




. . Strafford executed. 


164I 




. . Court of High Commission abolished. 


1 64I 




. . Court of Star Chamber abolished. 


1 64I 




. . The Grand Remonstrance. 


1642 




. . . Affair of Five Members. 


1642 




. . Civil War begins. 


1643 




. . First Battle of Newbury. 


1643 




. . Solemn League and Covenant. 


1644 




. . . Battle of Marston Moor. 


1644 




. . . Second Battle of Newbury. 


1645 




. . , Self-denying Ordinance. 


1645 




. . Laud executed. 


1645 




. . . Battle of Naseby. 


1647 




. . . Charles I. given up to Parliament. 


1648 




. . . Pride's Purge. 


1649 




. . . Charles I. executed. 


1649- 


1660 


. . The Commonwealth. 


1649- 


1650 


. . Cromwell in Ireland. 


1650 


. 


. . . Battle of Dunbar. 


1651 


# 


, . . Battle of Worcester. 


1652- 


1653 


. . Blake's battles with Dutch fleet. 


1653 




. . . Cromwell expels Long Parliament. 


1653 


. 


. . . Cromwell Lord Protector. 


1658 




. . . Cromwell's death. 


1660- 


1685 


. . Charles II. 


l66o- 


1667 


. . Earl of Clarendon chief minister. 


1665- 


1667 


. . Second Dutch War. 


1665 


. 


. . . Plague of London. 


1666 


. 


. . . Fire of London. 


1667 


. 


. . . Dutch fleet in Medway and Thames. 


1672- 


1674 


. . Third Dutch War. 


1673 


. 


. . Test Act passed. 


1673- 


1679 


. . Earl of Danby chief minister. 


1677 


. 


. . . Princess Mary marries Prince of Orange 



468 



IMPORTANT DATES. 



A.D. 
1679 




, . . Habeas Corpus Act. 


1685-1689 


. . James II. 


1685 . 


. . . Monmouth's rebellion. 


1688 . 


. . Second Declaration of Indulgence. 


1688 . 


. . Seven Bishops tried. 


1688, November. William of Orange lands at Torbay. 




r William III., 

\ and Mary II., to 1694. 


1 689-1 702 


1689 . 


. . Toleration Act. 


1689 




. . Bill of Rights. 


1689 




. . Siege of Londonderry. 


1690 




, . . Battle of Boyne. 


1692 




. . Battle of La Hogue. 


1692 




. . Battle of Steenkerke. 


1692 




. . National debt began. 


1694 




. . Bank of England founded. 


1695 




. . Freedom of press. 


1 701 




. . Act of Settlement. 


1702-1714 


. . Anne. 


1702-1713 


. . War of Spanish Succession. 


1704 . 


. . Battle of Blenheim. 


1704 . 


. . Capture of Gibraltar. 


1707 




. . Act of union of England and Scotland 



ENGLAND UNDER HANOVERIAN SOVEREIGNS. 



1714- 


1727 . 


. George I. 


1715 


. . 


. First Jacobite rebellion. 


1711- 


1720 


. South Sea Scheme. 


1721- 


1742 . 


. Walpole prime minister; the Cabinet 


1727- 


1760 


. George II. 


1741- 


1748 . 


War of Austrian Succession. 


1743 


. 


. Battle of Dettingen. 


1745 


. 


. Battle of Fontenoy. 


1745- 


1746 


. Young Pretender's rebellion. 


1745 


. . 


. Battle of Prestonpans. 


1746 


. 


. Battle of Falkirk. 


1746 


. 


. Battle of Culloden. 


1752 


. . 


. New style (calendar) adopted. 


1756- 


1763 


. Seven Years' War. 


!757" 


1761 


. William Pitt (the elder) in power. 


1760 


. 


. Conquest of Canada. 


1760- 


•1820 


. George III. 


1762 


. 


. Capture of Havana. 


1764 


. 


. Grenville's Stamp Act. 


1773 


. . 


. . Attack on tea ships in Boston harbor. 



IMPORTANT DATES. 



469 



A.D. 




1774 . • • 


. American Declaration of Rights. 


1775 • • • 


. War of American colonists. 


1775 • '• • 


. Battle of Bunker Hill. 


1776, July 4th 


. American Declaration of Independence. 


1777 . . . 


. British surrender at Saratoga. 


1778 . . . 


. Death of Chatham. 


1781 . . . 


. British surrender at Yorktown. 


1 779-1 782 


. Defence of Gibraltar. 


1783 • • • 


. England acknowledges America independent. 


1783-1801 


. William Pitt minister. 


1 788-1 795 . 


. Trial of Warren Hastings. 


1789 . . . 


. French Revolution. 


1793 • • • 


. War with French Republic. 


1798 . . . 


. Irish rebellion. 


1798 . . . 


. Battle of the Nile (Nelson). 


1801 . . . 


, Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland 


1801 . . . 


. Battle of Copenhagen (Nelson). 


1802 . . , 


. Peace of Amiens. 


1805, October 


. Battle of Trafalgar. 


1806, Februar 


y . Death of Pitt. 


1807 . . . 


. Abolition of British slave trade. 


1812-1814 


. War with United States. 


1 8 14, Decernl 


)er Treaty of Ghent. 


1815, June 18 


. Battle of Waterloo. 


181 5, Novemt 


>er Peace of Paris. 


1816 . . 


. Second Congress of Vienna. 


1820-1830 


. George IV. 


1828 . . 


. Corporation and Test Acts repealed. 


1829 . . 


. . Catholic Emancipation Act passed. 


1830-1837 


. William IV. 


1832 . . 


, . First Reform Act. 


1834 . . 


. . Abolition of Slavery in British dominions. 


1834 . . 


. . New Poor Law. 


1835 • • 


. . Municipal Reform Act. 


1837-1901 


. . Victoria. 


1837-1848 


. . Chartists give trouble. 


1838 . . 


. . Anti-Corn-Law League formed. 


1846 . . 


. . Repeal of Corn Laws. 


1850 . . 


. . Sir Robert Peel died. 


1851 . . 


. . Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. 


1854-1856 


. . Crimean War. 


1856, March 


. . Treaty of Paris. 


1867 . . 


. . Second Reform Act. 


1869 . . 


. . Irish Church Act (Disestablishment). 


1870 . . 


. . Irish Land Act. 


1870 . • 


. . Elementary Education Act. 



470 



IMPORTANT DATES. 



A.D. 




1874 • . 


, . Ashantee War. 


1877 . . 


, . Victoria proclaimed empress of India 


1878 . . . 


, . The Berlin Treaty. 


1879 . , 


. Zulu War. 


l88l . . .. 


. Boer War. 


1882 . . , 


. Egyptian War. 


I 884- I 885 . 


. Soudan War. 


I 884- I 885 


. Third Reform Act. 


1887, June 


. Queen's Jubilee celebrated. 


1896 . . 


, . Jameson's Raid on the Transvaal. 


1899 . . 


, . Boer War. 


1901 . . , 


, . Edward VII. 



INDEX. 



Abdication of King James, the, 316. 
Abraham, Heights of, 360. 
Abukela (a'boo-ke^la), battle of, 453. 
Accession of Edward VII., 462. 
Acre (a/ker or a/ker), 84, 108. 
Act of Six Articles, the, 196. 
Supremacy, the, 432. 
Union, the, 335, 375. 
Africa, Germans in, 450. 
Agincourt (aj'in-kort), battle of, 132. 
Alabama dispute, the, 460. 
Albemarle (al-be-marl'), 296. 
Albert, Prince, 457-459. 
Alexandria (al-eg-zan'dri-a), 451. 
Alfred, King, the story of, 26-41. 
Alma (al'ma), heights of, 425. 
Almonry (al'mpn-ri), in Westmin- 
ster, the, 162. 
America, discovery of, 166-170. 
second war with, 391-392. 
the Spaniards in, 170. 
William Pitt and, 365. 
American colonies, the, 367. 

War of Independence, the, 367. 
Angles (ang'glz) overcome Britons, 

16-19. 
Anjou (an 'jo), Margaret of, 149. 
Anne, Queen, 329, and Marlborough, 

333. 
Arabi Pasha (a-ra-be' pash'a), 452. 
Arbitration, 461. 
Arcades (ar'ka-dez), 298. 
Arcot (ar-kof) taken by Clive, 350. 
Argyle (ar-gil'), 336. 
Arkwright (ark'rlt), Sir Richard's 

spinning-jenny, 395. 
Armada (ar-ma'da), the Spanish, 

231, 234-241'. 
Arms in Elizabeth's time, 219. 
Army, Gen. Monk the founder of, 

296. 
Arnold, Michael, 311. 
Articles of religion changed by 

Henry VIII., 196. 



Arundel (ar'un-del) castle, 64. 
Ascham (as'kam), Roger, 211-214. 
Ashdown, battle of, 44. 
Ashe (ash), Marlborough, born at, 

326. 
Assaye (as-si'), battle of, 384. 
Asser (as'er), Bishop, 38. 
Assizes first held, 68. 
Atheling (ath'el-ing), Edgar the, 48. 
Athelny (ath'el-ni), 31. 
Athelstan (ath'el-stan), 42. 
Augustine (a-gus'tin), 18, 20. 
Australasia (as-tra-la'sha), 440. 
Australia (as-tra'lia) , 438-442. 
Australian commonwealth, the, 442. 

Babington (bab'ing-ton), 243. 

Balaclava (bal-a-kla'va), 424. 

Balance of power, the, 326. 

Baldwin, 86. 

Baliol (ba'li-ol), John, 113. 

Ball, John, 140. 

Baltic, the, 380. # 

Bank holidays, 461. 

Bannockburn (ban'ok-bern), 118, 

119. 
Barnet (bar'net), battle of, 153. 
Bass (bas), the explorations of, 441. 
Bastille (bas-tel'), burning of the, 

372. 
Beaconsfield (be'konz-feld), Lord, 

and the Boers, 447 ; describes 

Victoria's first council of 

state, 457. 
Becket (bek'et), Thomas, 69-77. 
Bede (bed), the Venerable, 38. 
Bedford, Duke of, 133, 137. 
Bengal (ben-gal'), 351. 

famine in, 352. 
Bertha, Queen, 21. 
Berwick (ber'ik), 114. 
Bible, divided into chapters by 

Stephen Langton, 92. 
chained the, 197. 



47i 



472 



INDEX. 



Bible in every church, 197. 

read by the people, 195-196. 

secret of England's greatness, 
the, 459. 
Birmingham (ber'ming-am), 407. 
Blackburn (blak'bern), 407. 
Black Death, the, 138, 139. 
Black Hole of Calcutta, the, 351. 
Black Prince, the, 124. 
Black Sea, the, 423. 
Blake, Admiral, 286-389. 
Blenheim (blen'im), battle of, 329. 
Blondel (blon-del') and Richard, 87. 
Blucher (bliich'er), General, 390. 
"Bluff King Hal," 171. 
Boadicea (bo-a-di-se'a), Queen, 10, 

12. 
Boat-making, 5. 
Boer trek, a, 445. 
Boers (borz), first revolt of the, 447. 

make war on British, 449. 
Bolingbroke, Henry, 147. 
Bolton (bol'ton), 396. 
Boleyn (bul'in), Anne, queen, 182, 

206-214. 
Bombay (bom-ba/), 347. 
Bonaparte (bo'na-part), Napoleon, 

373. 
" Bonnie Prince Charlie," 343-347. 
Boston port closed, 368. 
Bosworth (boz'werth) Field, 154. 
Botany Bay, convicts sent to, 441. 
Bothwell (both'wel), Lord, 225. 
Bowling Green at Plymouth Hoe, 234. 
Bowls, the famous game at, 236-237. 
"Boycott," the, 437. 
Boyne (boin), battle of the, 320. 
Bradford (brad'ford), 407. 
Brandon (bran'don), C, Duke of 

Suffolk. 207. 
Brentford (brent'ford), 269. 
Britain (brit'an), the story of an- 
cient, 1-14. 

becomes England, 15. 

and the Britons, 3. 

Caesar's account of, 6. 
Britons, the, 3. 

under the Romans, 12. 
Bruce (bros), Robert, 113, 117. 
Bruges (bro'jes), 148, 158. 

first printing-press at, 160. 
Buckingham (buk'ing-am), Duke of, 
259. 



Budleigh, Raleigh born at, 242. 

Bulgaria, 426. 

Bunker Hill, battle of, 368. 

Burgh (borg) on Sands, Edward I. 

dies at, 117. 
Burgundy (ber'gun-di) , Duchess of, 

156. 
Duke of, 159. 
Burke (berk), Mr., murder of, 437. 
Burnham Thorpe (bern-nem thorp), 

377. 

Cabinet, the, 341. 

Cabot (kab'ot), John, 168. 

S., 169. 
Cade, Jack, rebellion of, 147. 
Cadiz (ka'diz), 231, 246, 379. 
Caedmon (kacl'mon), 22, 23, 25. 
Csesar (se'zar), Julius, 3. 

his account of Britain, 4. 
Caesar, the landing of, 1. 

second visit to Britain, 6. 
Cairo (kl'ro) to Capetown, 453. 
Calais (kal'is), 123-179, 240. 

attacked by Henry VIII., 172. 

Henry and Francis meet near, 
179. 

lost to the English, 215. 
Calcutta (kal-kut'a), 348. 
Cameron of Lochiel, 344. 
Campbell (kam'bel), Sir Colin, 421. 

portrait of, 430. 
Canada, conquest of, 360. 

revolt in, 438. 

settlement of, 439. 

the French in, 438. 
Canaries (ka-na'riz), 
Candle-clocks, 40. 

Canterbury (kan'ter-ber-i) Cathe- 
dral, 71. 
Canute (ka-niit'), King, 44-46. 
Cape Colony and Natal, 444. 

St. Vincent, battle of, 377. 
Caradoc (kar'adok), 7-9. 
Carberry (kar'ber-i) Hill, 226. 
Carisbrooke (kar'is-briik) Castle, 

275. 
Carlisle (kar-lll'), 335. 
Carolinas, the, discovered, 169. 
Cartwright (kart'rit), R., 397. 
Caswallon (kaz-wol'len) captured, 7. 
Catholics and Protestants, 194. 
Cavaliers and Puritans, 268. 



INDEX. 



473 



Cavendish, Lord F., murder of, 437. 
Caxton (kaks'ton), the story of, 156- 

105. 
Cetewayo (set-i-wa'yo), King, 446. 
Chained Bible, tlie, 197. 
Chandos (chan'dos), Sir John of, 

124. 
Charles, King, I., downfall of, 274- 

279. 
portrait of, 259. 

Prince, escapes in disguise, 282. 
the Bold, 156. 
trial of, 277. 
Charles II., return of, 292-296, 308. 
Charter, the Great, 89. 
Chatham (chat'am), 229. 
Cheapside (chep'sld), 69. 
Chelsea (chel'si), Sir T. More's 

house at, 202. 
Chess Game and Play, of the, 162, 

163. 
Chinon (she-n6n')i 79. 
Churls (cherlz), 17. 
Christianity in Britain, 14-16. 
Ciudad, Roderigo (the-6-fhafh rofh- 

re'go), 388. 
Circuits of assise, 68. 
Civil War, the, begun, 267. 
Clarendon (klar'en-don), Constitu- 
tions of, 73. 
Clarkson (klark'son) and the Slave 

Trade, 416." 
Classes in the 14th century, 143. 
Claudius (kla'di-us), Emperor, 7- 

27. 
Clergy in the 14th century, 143. 
Clermont, 82. 

Clive (kliv), Lord Robert, 347. 
Cloth of Gold, Field of the, 179, 

182. 
Clyde (klid), the, 398. 
Coal fields, the, 398. 
Colonial Empire founded, 247. 
Colonies, the British, 438, 454. 
Columbus, Christopher, 166, 170. 
Common prayerbook drawn up, 207. 
Commons, House of, people now 

represented in, 411. 
Commonwealth, the, 280. 

England's greatness under, 286. 
Comus, 298. 
Congo, the, 422. 
Conquest, the Norman, 47, 62. 



Conway river, the, 405. 

Cook, Captain, discovers Australia, 

441. 
Copenhagen, battle of, 380. 
Coriolanus (ko'ri-o-la/nus), 252. 
Cornwall (korn'wal), Britons flee 

to, 17. 
Coronation Stone, the, 114. 
Corporation and Test Act, the, 309. 
Corsica, Napoleon born at, 373. 

Nelson wounded at, 377. 
Costumes of the 14th century, 143. 

Queen Elizabeth's time, 219. 

King Charles's time, 267. 

King Richard Ill.'s time, 145. 
Cotton trade, the, 397. 
Council, the Great, 100. 

of Northampton, 73. 

of State, 280. 
Coverdale (kuv'er-dal) , Miles, 197. 
Cranmer (kran'mer), Thomas, 188— 

189. 
Crecy (kra-se'), battle of, 123. 
Crime and punishment, 413. 
Crimea (kri-me'a), war in, 423-426. 
Crompton (kromp'ton), 396. 
Cromwell (krum'wel), Oliver, 267, 
271. 

the story of, 280-292. 

Richard, Protector, 203. 

Thomas, 189. 
Crusades (kru-sadz'), the, 81-88. 

of Edward I., 108. 
Crystal Palace, the, 458. 
Culloden (Cul-lo'den), 345. 
Cumberland (kum'ber-land), Duke 

of, at Culloden, 345. 
Customs, the, 120. 

Dacre (da'ker), Lord, 175. 
Danegeld (dan'geld), 43. 
Danes (clanz) invade England, 29. 
Danish Conquest, the, 42. 

Kings, the, 44. 
Darlington (dar'ling-ton), 403. 

Conquered by Alfred, 34. 
Darnley (darn'li), Henry, Lord, 224. 

death of, 225. 
Dartford, Wat Tyler's rebellion 

breaks out at, 140. 
Danube (dan'iib), the, 332, 423. 
Davy (da'vi), Sir Humphry, 403. 
Daylesford (dales'ferd), 352. 



474 



INDEX. 



Declarations of Indulgence, the, 

310-311. 
Defender of the Faith, Henry made, 

195. 
Delhi (del'lu), seized, 428. 
Denmark, Bothwell flees to, 226. 
De Ruyter (de ri'ter), Admiral, 288. 
Diamonds discovered in the Trans- 
vaal, 447. 
Dictes (dic'tes) and sayings of the 

philosophers, 103. 
Disestablishmentof the IrishCharch, 

436. 
Dispensing Power, the, 309. 
Domesday (dooms'day) Book, 58. 
Donjon (don/jon), 65. 
Doutelle (dou-tel'), Prince Charles 

on board the, 344. 
Douro (do'ro), 387. 
crossing the, 386. 
Dover, Charles II. lands at, 296. 
Drake, Sir Francis, the story of, 

229-233, 234. 
Dress in time of Queen Elizabeth, 

219. 
Drogheda (droch'-eda), 281. 
Druids (dro'idz), 14. 
Dublin as it is to-day, 319. 
Dudley (dud'li), Lord Guilford, 208. 
Dunbar (dun-bar'), 225. 

battle of, 281. 
Dunkirk (dun'kerk), 238. 

captured, 289. 
Dupleix (dii-pla'), 348-358. 
Durham (dur'am), 403. 
Dutch, troubles with the, 286, 287. 
in Cape Colony, the, 443. 

Earls (erls), 17. 

East India Company, the, 348, 431. 
Ebro (a'bro), the river, 388. 
Edgehill (ej'hil), battle of, 268. 
Edinburgh (ed'n-bur-o) taken by 
Edward I., 115. " 

view in, 225. 
Edin and Ironsides, 44. 
Edinton (ed'n-ton), battle of, 34, 36. 
Education, free and compulsory, 434. 

in Scotland, 434. 
Edward, King, I., 46, 107-120. 

the Confessor, 48. 

the Black Prince, 123. 

II., 112. 



Edward, King, IV., 157. 

VI., 207. 

VII., 462. 
Effingham (ef 'ing-am), Lord Howard 

of, 234. 
Egbert (eg'bert) of Wessex, 18. 
Egypt (e'jipt) conquered by Napo- 
leon, 379. 

garrisoned by British troops, 451. 
Elba (el'ba), Napoleon at, 389. 
Eleanor (el'a-nqr), Queen, 63, 96. 

wife of DeMontfort, 96. 
Elections, conduct of, 410. 
Eliot, Sir John, 259. 
Elizabeth, Queen, the story of, 214- 
221. 

death of, 246. 
Ella (el'a), 20. 
Ely (e'li), isle of, 55. 
Empress of India, Victoria, 460. 
English, who they are, 17. 

and French wars in America, 367. 
Erasmus (e-raz'mus), 195. 
Esk, the river, 23. 
Ethelbert (eth'el-bert), 20, 22. 
Ethelred (eth'el-rad), 29-42, 48. 
Ethelstane (eth'el-stan), 37. 
Ethel wolf (eth'el-wiiif), 26. 
Eton (e'ton), 383-432. 
Eugene (u-jen'), Prince, killed, 330. 
Eugenie (e-zha-ne'), 330. 
Evesham (evz'ham), 105. 
Evictions in Ireland, 436. 
Exeter (eks'e-ter), Marquis of, 174. 

siege of, 54. 
Exhibition, the great, of 1851, 458. 
Exports in Walpole's time, 342. 
Eyren (i'ren), 164. 

Faerie Queene, The, 245. 

Fairfax (far'faks), Sir T., and the 
new model army^ 273. 
Lady, 278. 

Falkirk (fal'kerk), the battle of, 116. 

Falstaff (fal'staf), Sir John, 253. 

Federation of the Australian Colo- 
nies, the, 442. 

Feudal (fu'dal) system, the, 57. 

Field of Cloth of Gold, 179-182. 

Firedamp, 403. 

Fire of London, the, 303-307. 

Firth of Forth, the, 335. 

Five members, affair of the, 264. 



INDEX. 



475 



Fitzwalter (fits-wal'ter) , R., 90, 93. 
Flanders (flan'derz) , 121. 

Edward I. in, 115. 

Edward IV. , flees to, 151. 

the war in, 288. 
Flemings (flem'ingz), the, 121. 
Flemish weavers in England, 138. 
Flodden (flod'n) field, battle of, 174. 
Florida, the, 4(30. 

Food in the Fourteenth Century, 
145. 

in Elizabeth's time, 218. 
Fort St. George, 348. 

William, 348. 
Fotheringay (fofih'er-in-ga), 228. 
Fountains Abbey, ruins of, 193. 
Fox, Charles James, 416. 
France, war with, 321, 373. 

assists the colonies, 368. 
Francis, husband of Queen Mary, 

222. 
Frederick the Great, 364. 
Free trade under Walpole, 342. 
French in Canada, the, 439. 

frontier under Louis XIV., 331. 

republic makes war on England, 
372. 
Frobisher (fro'bish-er), Sir Martin, 

234. 
Fry, Mrs. Elizabeth, 414. 
Furniture in Elizabeth's time, 218. 

Ganges, The, 428. 

Gascony (gas'ko-ni) , Governor of, 96. 

Gaul (gal), conquered by Caesar, 3. 

and Britain (map), 4. 
Gaunt (gant), John of, 253. 
Geneva, arbitration at, 461. 
Genoa (jen'o-a), Columbus born at, 

167. 
George I., King, 335. 
George III., King, 365. 
George IV., King, death of, 407. 
Germans in Africa, the, 450. 
Gibraltar (ji-bral'tar), ceded, 334. 

defence of, 368. 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 244. 
Gladstone, W. E., and Ireland. 437. 

and the first Transvaal War, 447. 
Glasgow as it is to-day, 43°-. 
Glencoe (s;len-ko'), massacre of, 

316-317. 
Globe Theatre, the, 251. 



Gloucester (glos'ter), Duke of, 153. 

Gold mining in Australia, 442. 
discovered in the Transvaal, 447. 

Gordon, General, in the Soudan, 452. 
killed at Khartoum, 453. 

Grammar schools founded, 207. 

" Grand Remonstrance," the, 265. 

Grand Trunk Railway, the, 439. 

Great Charter, the, 89-91. 

Great Council, the, 100. 

" Great Commoner," the, 366. 

Great Rebellion, the, 258-280, 295. 

Greatness of England under Crom- 
well, 286-288. 

Greenwich (gren'ij), hospital, 321. 

Gregory and the English slaves, 18- 
19. 

Gregory, Pope, 20. 

Grey (gra) , Lady Jane, the story of, 
206-213. 

Griqualand (gre'kwa-land) , at, 446. 

Grosseteste (gros'test), Robert, 
Bishop, 106. 

Guiana (ge-a/na), 245. 

Guildhall (gild'hal), 249. 

Guilds, the, 146. 

Guthrump (guth'rtiinp), 35-37. 

Hampden (hamp'den), John, 263- 

265-270. 
Hampton Court Palace, 283. 

plot, the, 323. 
Hardrada (har-dra/da), Harold, 51. 
Hargreaves (har'grevz), James, 394. 
Harold, Earl of Wessex, 47, 49. 
Harrow, 432. 
Hastings, 40. 

battle of, 50-53. 

story of, 352-357. 

Warren, the trial of, 357. 
Havelock (hav'-loek), Sir Henry, 

428. 
Hawkins, Sir John, 234. 
Hayes (haz) , Pitt the younger born 

at, 369. 
Henry II., the story of, 62, 80. 

and J. Cabot, 169. 

III., crowned in his father's life- 
time, 75. 

IV., 147-252. 

murdered in the Tower, 153. 

Prince, and the chief justice, 131. 

V. at Agincourt, 252. 



476 



INDEX. 



Henry VII. , 154-171. 

VIII. and the French War, 171. 
and the Succession, 206. 
Hereward (her'e-ward) , 55,57. 
Hicks, General, in the Soudan, 452. 
Highlanders become British soldiers, 
364. 
the, at Luck now, 429. 
Hilda, the abbess, 23. 
Hindoos (Hin'doz), 427. 
Hindustanee, the Queen learns, 460. 
Hoe, the, at Plymouth, 234. 
Holidays in the 14th century, 146. 
Holland, Independents flee to, 256. 
Holmby House, 275. 
Holy rood (ho'li-rod), 345. 
Homage, to do, 57. 
Home rule for Ireland, 436-437. 
Hoogley (hog'le), the, 351. 
Horton, 297. 

Hospital, the first public, 321. 
Hounslow (hounz'lo) Heath, 310. 
Hours of labor, 435. 
House of Lords abolished, 280. 
Houses in the 14th century, 144. 
of Parliament, the, 409. 
in time of Elizabeth, 217. 
Howard (how'ard), Lord Thomas, 
176. 
engages a Spanish ship, 239. 
John, and the jails, 412-414. 
Sir Edmund, 175. 
Hudson Bay, discovered, 169. 

ceded to England, 334. 
Hugh, the merchant, 86. 
Hundred Years 1 War, the, 121, 138. 
Huntingdon, 270. 
Husbandmen in the 14th century, 

143. 
Hysena (hi-e'na), 417. 

H Penseroso, 298. 

Impeachment of the five members, 

265. 
Imperial, the Prince, death of, 447. 
Income tax first imposed, 371. 
Independence, the War of, 367. 
Independents, the, 256, 273. 
Indian army on the march, 355. 

mutiny, the, 427-431. 
India, the British in, 347, 357. 

map of, 349. 

Victoria, Empress of, 460. 



Interdict (in'ter-dikt), the, 92. 
Inverness, 344. 
Ipswich (ips'wich), 177. 
Ireland, Henry II. attempts to con- 
quer, 78. 
Wentworth's government of, 260. 
justice to, 435. 
King William's war in, 317. 
massacre in, 265. 
rebellion in, 280-281. 
Irish Act of Union, 375. 

Church disestablished, 437. 
Land League, the, 436. 
"Ironsides," Cromwell's, 271. 
Isabella of Castile and Columbus, 168. 
Isandula (e-san-do'la), battle of, 446. 
Ismail (is-ma-el'), Khedive, 451. 

Jacobites (jak'o-blts), 316, 335, 343. 

Jail fever, the, 413. 

Jamaica captured, 288. 

James the Fifth of Scotland, 222. 

James, Sixth of Scotland and First 
of England, 246. 
the Second, 309-316, 324. 

James, the Pretender, 335. 
| Jamieson (ja'me-son) raid, the, 448. 
I Jervis (jer'vis) Admiral, 378. 

Jews, disabilities of, removed, 432. 

Joan of Arc (jo-an' ovark), 133-137. 

Johannesberg (yo-han'nes-borg), 
448. 

John, King, 89-95. 

Joyce (jois'), Cornet, 275. 

Judith, wife of King Alfred, 27. 

Kaffirs (kaf'erz), troubles with, 445. 
Katharine, wife of Henry VIII., 171. 

and the cardinals, 183. 
Kenilworth, 104. 
Kenwith, 33. 
Khartoum (char-tom'), Gen. Gordon 

killed at, 453. 
Khedive (ke-deV), Ismael, 452. 
Killingworth (kil'ing-werth), 402. 
Kimberley (kim'ber-in, 446. 
King and the Cardinal^ the, 171-187. 
King's power, the, 309-310. 

reduced by Walpole, 341 . 

as head of the church, 188. 
Kingston on Thames, 212. 
Kinsale (kin-sal'), James lands at,317. 

flees to, 320. 



INDEX. 



477 



Kitchener, Lord, of Khartoum, 454. 

Knox, John, 224. 

Kruger (krtig'er), President, 449. 

Labrador discovered, 169. 

Labor, hours of, reduced, 435. 

La Hogue (la hog) Cape, battle of, 

321-322. 
L> Allegro (lal-la'gro), 298. 
Lambeth, 203. 
Lanark, 115. 
Lancaster (lang'kas-ter) , the House 

of, 149. 
Langside, Mary, defeated at, 226. 
Langton (lang'ton), Stephen, 90-92. 
Language in the 14th century, 146. 

effect of printing on the, 164-165. 
Large, Robert, 157. 
Latin schools, 434. 
Laud (lad), Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 262. 
Leeds (ledz), 407. 
Leicester (les'ter), Earl of, 74. 

Abbey, Wolsey at, 187. 

Earldom of, 96. 

Earl of, befriends Raleigh, 243. 
Leopold (leo-pold), Duke of Aus- 
tria, 86. 
Leslie (les'li), David, 281. 
Lewes (lu'es), battle of, 103. 
Lexington, battle of, 368. 
Ley den (li'den), 257. 
Light Brigade, charge of the, 424. 
Ligny (len-ye'), 390. 
Lincoln (ling'kpn), Wolsey dean and 

bishop of, 177. 
Liverpool, 397, 405. 
Livingstone (liv'ing-ston), David, 

the story of, 417^422. 
Llewelyn (15-el'in), 110, 112. 
Lochiel (loch-el), Cameron of, 344. 
Lochleven (loch-le'vn) Castle, 226. 
Locomotive, the story of the, 401. 
London burned by Britons, 11. 

captured by Danes, 44. 

sanitary condition of, 302. 
Londonderry (lun'don-der-i), siege 

of, 318. 
Long Parliament, the, 264, 284, 294. 
Lord Protector, the, 291. 
"Lords of the Congregation," the, 

224. 
V Orient (lo-ryon'), 379, 381. 



Louis (lo'is), of France invades Eng- 
land, 94. 

XIV. and William at peace, 322. 
Lucknow (luk'nou), siege of, 428. 

charge of Highlanders at, 429. 
Ludgate (lud'gat) Hill, 212. 
Luther (lo'ther), Martin, 194. 
Lycidas, 298. 

MacDonald, Flora, 346. 
MacDonald (mak-do'nal), the, 316, 
344, 399. 

Sir John, 439-440. 
Madras (ma-dras'), 348, 356. 
Madrid (ma-drid'), Wellington 

enters, 388. 
Magdalen (mag'da-len) College, 177. 
Magna Charta, 91. 
Mahdi (ma'de), rebellion of the, 452. 
Mahomet (ma-hom'et), 82. 
Mahrattas (ma-rat'az), the, 354-384. 
Maid of Norway, The, 113. 
Maid of Orleans, The, 133. 
Malakoff (ma'la-kof), the, 426. 
Malplaquet (mal-pla-ka'), the 333. 
Malta (mal'ta) taken, 380. 
Manchester (man'ches-ter), 405-407. 

Earl of, 272. 
Mansion, Colard, 160. 
Mar, Earl of, 335. 
Margaret of Anjou, 149. 
Market Drayton, 348. 
Marlborough (marl'bur-o), the story 

of, 326-334. 
Marsh, Friar Adam, 106. 
Marshall, Baron William, 90. 
Marston (mars'ton) Moor, 272. 
Mary, and the Protestants, 197. 

proclaimed Queen, 209. 

Queen of Scots, the story of, 
222-228. 

Queen, portrait, 318. 
Massachusetts, charter granted to, 
257. 

and the Revolution, 367. 
Maud, Queen, in Arundel Castle, 64. 
Mayflower, the, 257. 
Meals in the 14th century, 145. 
Meavey, the river, 233. 
Medina (me-de'na), Duke Sidonia 

de, 236. 
Meer Jaffier (iner jaf'fer), 352. 
Meerut (me'rut), 427. 



478 



INDEX. 



Melbourne, Lord, 459. 

Menai Strait (men'i strat), 405. 

Merlin (nier'lin), prophecy of, 110. 

Merton (mer'ton), 30. 

Middle class gain in political power, 

410. 
Milton, John, the story of, 297-302. 
Minorca (mi-n6r'ka) ceded to Eng- 
land, 334. 
Mississippi, French possessions on, 

358. 
"Model Parliament," the, 120. 
Moffat (mof'at), Dr., 418. 
Mohammedans (mo-ham'ed-nz), 423. 
Moidart (mo'i-dart), 343. 
Monasteries, centres of trade, 68 ; 

ruin of the, 191. 
Monk, General, the story of, 292-296. 
Montagu (mon'ta-gu), Lord, 194. 
Montcalm (mont-kam'), 358. 
Montfort, Simon de (mont'fort), 

96-106. 
Montreal (mont-re-al'), 439. 
Moray (mur'a), Earl of, regent, 226. 
Morcar, 54. 
More (mor), Sir Thomas, the story 

of, 199-205. 
Morton, Cardinal, 199. 
Moscow (mos'kou), Napoleon's 

march, 387. 
Mutiny, the Indian, 427-431. 

Napoleon (na-po'le-on), 375. 

march to Moscow, 387. 

his plan to attack England, 376. 

his power broken, 389. 

master of the continent, 385. 
Naseby (naz'bi), battle of, 273. 
Natal (na-tal') and Cape Colony, 444. 

an English colony, 446. 
National debt, the, 371. 
Naval battles with America, 392. 
Navigation Act, the, 286. 
Navy founded by King Alfred, 40. 

the, in Elizabeth's time, 237. 
Nazareth, Edward at, 108. 
Neckar (nek'kar), the, 330. 
Negroes, traffic in, 415. 
Nelson, the story of, 377-383. 
Netherlands (nefh'er-landz), Marl- 
borough in, 326. 
Newark, King Charles surrenders 
at, 274.^ 



New Brunswick, 438. 

Newcastle (nu'kas-1), 401. 

New forest, the, 58. 

Newfoundland (nu-found'land) dis- 
covered, 169. 
ceded to England, 334. 

Newmarket, 275. 

"New Model," the, 271. 

New Orleans, English defeat at, 392. 

New South Wales, 441. 

New York and the Revolution, 367. 

New Zealand (ze'land), 440. 

Nightingale, Florence, 426. 

Nile, battle of the, 379. 
sources of the, 420. 

Nobles, the, in the 14th Century, 
143. 

Norfolk (nor'fpk), Duke of, 227. 

Norman castle, a, 65. 

Norman Conquest, the, 47-55. 
results of the, 60-62. 

Normans (nor'nianz), their charac- 
ter and what they did for 
England, 61. 

Northampton (n6rth-amp'ton), the 
Council of, 73. 

Northumberland (nor-thum'ber- 
land), Earl of, 186. 
Duke of, protector, 207. 
beheaded, 211. 

Norway (n6r'wa), the maid of, 112. 

Nottingham (not'ing-am), 267. 

Nova Scotia (no'va sko'shia) ceded 
to England,"339-438." 

Odo (o'do), 54. 

Ohio, the French possession in, 358. 

Oldham (old'am), 407. 

Old Sarum (sa'rum), 362, 407. 

Omdurman, 454. 

Oporto (o-por'to), bridge of boats 

at, 386. 
Orange Free State, founded by 

Boers, 446. 
declared British Crown Colony, 

450. 
Ordeal, trial by, 67. 
Oxford, Earl of, 339. 
Orinoco (o-ri-no'ko), 246. 
Orkney (ork'ni) Islands, the, 113. 
Orleans, the siege of, 133. 
Oude (oud), princesses of, 356, 431. 
Outlanders and Boers, 448. 



INDEX. 



479 



Oxford (oks'ford), captured by 
Danes, 44. 
in Henry IP's reign, 68. 
the provisions of, 98-100. 
to-day, 201. 

King Charles's headquarters at, 
269. 

Palestine (pal'es-tm), 82. 
Paris in hands of the Germans, 389. 
Parker, Admiral, 380. 
Parliament (par'li-ment) , houses of, 
409. 

the first (1265), 103. 

the long, 264. 

dissolved by Cromwell, 284. 

the Model, 120. 
Parma (par'ma), Duke of, 238-240. 
Parnell, C. S., 436. 
Pease (pez), Mr., 403. 
Pennsylvania and the Kevolution, 

367. 
Perth (perth), 336. 
Peninsular War, the, 387. 
Peter the Hermit, 81. 
Petition of Right, the, 258. 
Philip, King of Spain, 212. 
Pilgrim Fathers, story of the, 255, 

257. 
Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 342, 

347, 362-367. 
Pitt, William, the Younger, 369-376. 
Plague of London, the, 302, 303. 
Plague, the, 296. 
Plassey (plas'se), battle of, 351. 
Plymouth, Drake, Governor of, 233. 
Pole, Cardinal, beheaded, 194. 
Pondicherry (pon-cli-sher'i), 348, 352. 
Poor-laws, beginning of, 221. 
Pope, the, and Henry VIII. , 183-188. 
Pope's authority thrown off, 190. 

Legate, the, 178. 
Port Elizabeth, 445. 
Portia, 253. 

Portugal (por'tu-gal), 233, 386. 
Potatoes first brought to England, 

245. 
Potheridge, 292. 
Power-loom, the, 397. 
Presbyterians, the, 273. 
Press, freedom of the, 435. 
Preston (Pres'ton), 276, 336. 
Pretender sails for Scotland, 335. 



Pretender, James, the, 335. 

the Young, 343. 
"Pride's Purge," 276. 
Prime minister, origin of, 340. 
Prince Charles, 281-282. 
Prince of Wales, the first, 112, 458, 

459. 
Princes in the Tower, the, 154. 
Princess, Royal, 458. 
Printers, early at work, 160. 
Printing, 159. 

at Bruges, 160. 

its effect on the language, 164- 
165. 
Prison reform, 412. 
Prisons, the state of, 413. 
Provisions of Oxford, the, 98-100. 
Protestants, the, 194. 
Prussia (prush'a). 
Public libraries in England, 462. 
Public Schools, the, 432. 
Pudding Lane, 303. 
Punishment and crime, 413. 
Puritan England described, 289. 
Puritans and cavaliers, 268. 
Puritans, the, 255-256. 
Putney, 189. 

Pym (pirn). John, 259-265. 
Pyrenees, the, 389. 

Quatre Bras (katr-bra'), 390. 
Quebec (kwe-bek'), 358, 361. 
Queensland, 441. 

Railroad, the first, 403. 

Raleigh (ra'li), 221, 238, 242-247, 

248. 
Ramillies, the battle of, 333. 
Ravensworth (ra/venz-werth) ,Lord, 

402. 
Rebellion, story of the great, 258- 

280,' 295. 
Redan (re-dan'), the, 426. 
Red Pole, the sign of the, 162. 
Reformation, story of the, 188-198. 
Reform Bill, the great, 406-411. 
Religious persecution, 196. 

tests abolished, 432. 
Remonstrance, the grand, 265. 
Republic, England a, 280. 
Restoration, the, 292-296. 
Revolt, the, of 1715, 335-336. 
Revolution, the, of 1688, 308-325. 



480 



INDEX. 



Revolution, the French, 372. 
Rheims (reiriz), Joan of Arc at, 136. 
Richard I., 8i-88. 

the boy king and Wat Tyler's 
men, 141. 

III., 154-252. 

the Protector, 293. 
Richmond (rich'mond), Castle, 59. 
Right, the Petition' of, 258. 
Rivers, Earl, 162. 

Rizzio (ret'se-o), D. , murder of, 224. 
" Rocket, 1 ' The, 404. 
Rodney, Admiral, 368. 
Roman Catholics, justice to, 375. 

disabilities removed, 432. 
Romans, the landing of, 2. 

Britons under the, 12. 

Caradoc in Rome, 9. 

leave England, 15. 

soldiers, 9. 
Rosalind, 253. 

Roses, Wars of the, 147-155. 
Rothschild, Baron, 432. 
Rouen (ro'on), 123. 
Roumania (ro-ma'ni-a), 426. 
Roundheads, 268. 
Royalists, 271. 
Rufus, William, 60. 
Rugby, 432. 

Rump, the, Parliament, 276-277. 
Runny mede (run'i-mede), 90, 93. 
Rupert (ro'pert), Prince, 271-280. 
Russell, Lord John, 408. 
Russia and the Turks, 423. 

Safety lamp, the, 403. 
Salaclin (sal'a-din), 85. 
Salamanca (sa-la-mau'ka), 388. 
Salisbury (salz-bu-ri), 362. 

Countess of, beheaded, 194. 
San Domingo (san do-meng'go), 288. 
Sanitary condition of London, 302. 
Santa Cruz (san'ta kroz), 289. 
Saracens (sar'a-senz), 108. 
Saxe-Coburg (saks-ko'berg), 457. 
Saxon (sak'sn), chronicle the, 38. 
Scone (skon), the coronation stone 

from, 114. 
Scotland, invaded by Edward, 112. 

education in, 434. 

rebels against Laud, 263. 

Invades England, 264. 
Sebastian (se-bas'^ian), 169. 



Seine (san), the, 123. 
Self-denying ordinance, the, 273. 
Selwood (sel'wood), forest, 35. 
Sen lac (sen'lac), the hill of, 51. 
Separatists, the, 256. 
Sepoys (se'poys) and the cartridges, 

427. 
Servia (ser'vi-a), 426. 
Sevastopol (sev-as-to'pol), 424. 
Seven bishops, trial of the, 311-313. 
Seymour (se-mor), Jane, 206. 
Shakespeare (shak'sper), William, 

the story of, 248-254. 
Sheerness, 315. 
Sheffield (shef'eld), 407. 
Shenandoah, the, 460. 
Sheridan (sher'i-dan), 357. 
Sherrifmuir (sher'rif-muir), 336. 
Ship money, 263. 
Shire (shir) courts, the, 67. 
Skye (ski), 346. 
Slave gang on the march, 421. 
Slave trade, in Africa, 440. 

abolished, 416. 
Sluys (slois), the battle of, 122. 
Smallpox, the scourge of, 323. 
Smithfield, Wat Tyler at, 142. 
Smuggling, restriction of, 342. 
Snowdon (sno'don), mountains the, 

112. 
Solemn league and covenant, the 

271. 
Solway Firth (sol'wa ferth), 227. 
Somerset (sum'er-set), Duke of, 207. 
Somme (som), the, 123. 
Soudan, the rebellion in, 452. 

pacified, 454. 
Soult (sort) army routed, 387. 
South African Chartered Company, 

the, 449. 
Southampton (south -amp'ton), 121. 
South Australia Colony, 441. 
South Sea Bubble, the, 337. 
South Sea House, the, 337. 
South wark (suth'ark), 251. 
Spain, treaty with, in 1713, 337. 
Spaniards in America, 169, 170. 
Spanish Armada, the. 231, 234-241. 
Spanish power in West Indies de- 
stroyed, 288. 
Spenser, Edmund, 245. 
Spinning and weaving, the story of, 

393-399. 



INDEX. 



481 



Spinning-jenny, the, 394, 395. 

Sports of Elizabeth's time, 220. 

Spurs, battle of. the, 173. 

St. Albans (al'banz), battle of, 148. 
Abbey of, 149. 

St. Brice's Day massacre, 43. 

Stanley, H. M., (stan'li), finds Liv- 
ingstone, 421. 

Stanley, Sir Edward, 175. 

Star Chamber, the, Court of, 262. 

Steam engine, the story of, 399. 

Steam power introduced, 398. 

Stephen (ste'ven), King, 62. 

Stephenson (ste'ven-son), George, 
401. 

St. Helena, Napoleon at, 390. 

Stirling (ster'ling), the battle of, 115, 
336. 

St. Lawrence, the, 359. 

Stockton (stok'ton), on Tees, 403. 

St. Paul's Cathedral, burned, 306. 
Nelson monument in, 382. 
rebuilt, 307. 

Stratford-on-Avon (strat'ford-on-a'- 
von), 250. 

Strongbow (Richard de Clare), 78, 

Suez Canal, the, 451. 

Suffolk (suf'gk), Duchess of, 208. 

Sunderland (sun'der-land) . 

Surajah-Dowlah (so-ra-ja'dou'la) , 
351. 

Surat (so-raf), 347. 

Surrey, the Earl of, 175. 

Sussex (sus'eks). 

Sweyn (swan), King, 43, 44. 

Sydney, convicts first sent to, 441. 

Talavera (ta-la-va ro) , battle of, 387. 

Tasmania, 440. 

Taxes first paid in money, 68. 

Tax on knowledge abolished, 435. 

Tea tax, the, 367. 

Tel-el-Kebir (tel-el-ke-ber'), 452. 

Tenant-in-chief, 57. 

Teneriffe (ten-er-if), attacked by 

Nelson, 379. 
Terounne, the siege of, 173. 
Tewkesbury (tuks'bu-ri), 153. 
Thanet (than'et), Isle of, 20. 
Theobald (the'o-bald), 69. 
"Three F's," the, 437. 
Time measurement in Alfred's day, 

39. 



Tippoo Sahib (ti-po' sa'hib), 383. 

Tithes, abolition of direct, 432. 

Tobacco first brought to England, 
245. 

Tonnage and poundage, 260. 

Torbay (t6r-ba), 314. 

Tostig (tos'tig), 57. 

Toulon (to'ldn), Nelson at, 379. 

Tournai (tor-na') captured, 174. 

Tower of London, 57, 101, 203-210. 

Towton (tou'ton), the battle of, 
150. 

Trade in Elizabeth's time, 220. 

Traders in the 14th century, 143. 

Trafalgar (traf-al-gar'), 382. 
Square, 382. 

Transvaal (tranz-val'), founded by 
the Boers, 446. 
discovery of gold in, 447. 
declared British crown colony, 

450. 
Mr. Gladstone and the, 446. 

Troy (troi), the siege of, 157. 

Tunis (tu'nis), bombardment of, 288. 

Tun-moot (tun-mot) or town meet- 
ing, 17. 

Turkey and Russia, 423. 

Tyler, Wat, rebellion of, 140. 

Tynclale, W., 197. 

Tyne (tin), 405. 

Universities, beginnings of, 68. 

religious tests abolished, 432. 
Universal suffrage, 441. 
Urban (er'ban), Pope, 82. 
Utopia (u-to'pi-a), 205. 

Vancouver (van-ko'ver), 440. 

Van Diemen's (van de'men) land, 

441. 
Van Tromp, Admiral, 288. 
Varna (var'na), fleets sent to, 423. 
Vaudreuil, 358. 
Victoria (vik-to'ri-a), 441-442. 

falls, the, 419. 

the story of Queen, 455-462. 
Victory, the, 382. 
Villains in the 14th century, 143. 
Vincent, Cape St. (vin'sent), 377. 
Virginia, discovery of, 244, 245, 

and the revolution, 367. 
Vittoria (ve-to're-a), 389. 
Voting in England, 407. 



482 



INDEX. 



Wakefield (wak'feld), battle of, 150. 
Wales (walz), Britons flee to, 8-17. 

conquest of, by Edward, 110. 

first prince of, 112. 
Wallace (wol'as), Sir W., 114. 
Walpole (wol'pol), Sir R., 338-342. 
Walsinghain (wol'sing-am), Sir F. , 

217. 
Wareham (war'am), 31. 
Warwick (wor'ik), Earl of, 149. 

and Henry V., 152. 

Castle, 151. 

defeated at St. Albans, 150. 

killed at Barnet, 153. 
Washington captured by the Eng- 
lish, 391. 
Waterloo (wa-ter-lo'), battle of, 390. 
Watt, James, 399-400. 
Weald (weld) of Kent, the, 156. 
Weaver at his loom, 393. 
Welland (wel'and), the, 94. 
Wellesley (welz'li), Sir Arthur, 383. 
Wellington (wel'ing-ton), the story 

of, 383-390. 
Wentworth (went'werth), Sir T., 

258-264. 
Wessex (wes'eks), 18-30. 

Harold, Earl of, 47. 
West Indies, Rodney in the, 366. 

English possessions in the, 288. 
Westminster Abbey, coronation 

stone at, 114. 
Westminster (west'min-ster) Hall, 
Sir T. More's trial in, 204. 

King Charles's trial in, 277. 

Warren Hastings's trial in, 357. 
Wexford (weks'fprd) massacre, 281. 
Wheat growing in Australia, 442. 
Whigs and Tories, 333. 
Whitby, 23. 



Whitehall, Charles beheaded at, 278. 
Wilberforce (wil'ber-fors), 415-416. 
William, of Normandy, 47. 

IV., 407. 

Orange, 313-317. 

Rufus, 60, 
Wilton (wil'ton), 31. 
Winchester captured by the Danes, 
44. 

Alfred crowned king at, 31. 

Alfred buried in, 41. 
Windows of horn first made, 40. 

of glass first made, 218. 
Windsor (win'zor) Castle, 455. 
" Witan," the (wit'n), 18. 
Woden, 20. 
Wolfe (wiilf), 347. 

the story of, 358, 361. 
Woiseley (wulz'li), Sir Garnet, 430. 

routs Arabi Pasha, 452. 
Wolsey (wiil'zi), Thomas, 177-187, 
Woodstock (wud'stok) given to 

Marlborough, 332. 
Wool growing in Australia, 442. 
Worcester (wus'ter), sie°'e of, 283. 
Wren, Sir T., builds St. Paul's, 307. 
Wyatt (wi'at), Sir Thomas, 212. 
Wylam (wi'lam), mine, 401. 

Yeoman in the 14th century, 143. 
York, the house of the White Rose, 

149. 
Young Pretender, the, 343. 

Zambesi (zam-be'ze), the, 419. 
Zanzibar (zan-zi-bar'), 422, 451. 
Zululand, a British colony, 447. 
Zulus (zo'los), trouble with, 446. 
war with, 447. 



AN ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF 
THE UNITED STATES 

By ALLEN C. THOMAS, A. M. 

Author of li A History of the United States^ and Professor of History 
in Hwverford College. 



THE Elementary History is for the use of younger 
classes, and serves as an introduction to the 
author's larger History of the United States. 

Effort has been made to present such important phases 
of national growth as the difficulties and dangers of ex- 
ploration, and how they were overcome by earnestness 
and perseverance; the risks and hardships of -settle- 
ment, and how they were met and conquered ; the inde- 
pendence and patriotism of the colonists, and how they 
triumphed ; the effect of environment upon character ; 
the development of the people in politics and govern- 
ment and in social life ; and the progress of invention 
and its effect upon national development. 

Realizing the fascination that the personalities of our 
national heroes have for the young, the author has 
chosen those men who best illustrate^ the important 
periods in the making of our nation, and in a series 
of interesting biographical sketches uses their lives as 
centers around which the history is written. Thus the 
book has all the freshness and vitality, all the rapidity 
of action, and all the interest, of tales of patriotism and 
courage and untiring endurance, and yet preserves ac- 
curacy of fact and due proportion of importance of events. 

Cloth, jjy pages. Maps and illustrations. Introduction price, 60 cents. 

D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston New York Chicago 



History. 



Allen's History Topics. Covers Ancient, Modem, and American history and gives an 
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Allen's Topical Outline Of English History. Including references for literature. Boards, 
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Boutwell's The Constitution of the United States at the End of the First Century. 

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N 66 891 





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